Book C sFao Z 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 

BULLETIN 51 



ANTIQUITIES OF THE MESA VERDE 
NATIONAL PARK 

CLIFF PALACE 



BY 

JESSE WALTER FEWKES 




LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



Smithsonian Institution, 
Bureau of American Ethnology, 

Washington, D. O., May H, 1910. 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the accompanying manuscript, 
entitled "Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park : Cliff Palace," 
by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, with the recommendation that it be 
published, subject to your approval, as Bulletin 51 of this Bureau. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

F. W. Hodge, 

Ethnologist in Charge. 

Dr. Charles D. Walcott, 

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington, D. C. 

3 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Introduction 9 

Cliff Palace a type of prehistoric culture 11 

Recent history , 13 

Site of Cliff Palace - 20 

Prehistoric trails to Cliff Palace 23 

General features - -*-- 23 

Destruction by the elements 23 

Vandalism 24 

Repair of walls . 25 

Major antiquities 25 

General plan of Cliff Palace - 26 

Terraces and retaining walls 27 

Tower quarter - - 27 

Plaza quarter 28 

Old quarter - 28 

Northern quarter . 28 

Masonry , 29 

Adobe bricks 30 

Plastering ; - 31 

Paintings and rock markings 32 

Refuse heaps - 33 

Secular rooms - 33 

Doors and windows 34 

Floors and roofs . . . 35 

Fireplaces - 36 

Living rooms . 36 

Milling rooms . 37 

Granaries 38 

Crematories 38 

Ledge rooms 40 

Enumeration of the rooms in. Cliff Palace 40 

Secular rooms 40 

Kivas 48 

Kivas of the first type 49 

KivaA 51 

KivaB ...... 52 

KivaC 53 

KivaD 53 

Kiva E 53 

Kiva F " 54 

KivaG 54 

Kiva H 55 

Kiva 1 1 55 

Kiva J 56 

KivaK 57 

5 



6 



CONTENTS 



Enumeration of the rooms in Cliff Palace — Continued. 
Ki vas — Continued . 

Kivas of the first type — Continued. Page 

KivaL 57 

Kiva N 57 

Kiva P 58 

Kiva Q 58 

KjvaS 59 

KivaT 59 

Kiva U CO 

Kiva V 60 

A subtype of kivas (Kiva M) 61 

Kivas of the second type 62 

KivaO 63 

Kiva R 63 

Kiva W 63 

Minor antiquities 64 

Stone implements 65 

Pounding stones 66 

Grinding stones 66 

Miscellaneous stones 66 

Pottery 67 

Relations as determined by pottery 70 

Symbols on pottery 71 

Pottery rests 72 

Basketry 1 72 

Sandals 72 

Wooden objects 73 

Drills 74 

Bone implements 74 

Turquoise ear pendants and other objects . 75 

Seeds 75 

Textiles 76 

Human burials 77 

Conclusions : 78 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 



Plate 1. Cliff Palace, from the Speaker-chief's house to the southern end 9 

2. Cliff Palace, from the opposite side of the canyon 11 

3. The southern end, after and before repairing 12 

4. Central part before repairing 15 

5. The round tower, from the north. General view of the ruin, before 

repairing 16 

6. Central part, after repairing 19 

7. Southern end, after repairing 20 

8. Ground plan 22 

9. Main entrance. Southern end, showing repaired terraces 24 

10. Tower quarter, after repairing. Terraces at southern end, after 

repairing 27 

11. Tower quarter 29 

12. The square tower, before and after repairing 31 

13. Details of Cliff Palace 33 

14. Square tower, after repairing. Old quarter 34 

15. Speaker-chief's house, after repairing 36 

16. Northern part, from, the Speaker-chief's house to the western end 39 

17. Details of kiva A 41 

18. Kiva H, before repairing 43 

19. Southeastern wall of kiva Q, before repairing 45 

20. Axe with original handle 47 

21. Stone hatchets 48 

22. Stone objects 50 

23. Various objects from Cliff Palace 52 

24. Food bowls 55 

25. Vases and food bowls 56 

26. Pottery , . 58 

27. Pitch balls and vase 60 

28. Rests for jars 63 

29. Basket hopper — side and bottom views 64 

30. Sandals 66 

31. Sandals 66 

32. Sandals 66 

33. Wooden objects 73 

34. Bone implements 74 

35. Bone implements 76 

Fig. 1. View down Navaho canyon 21 

2. Coil of basket plaque 73 

3. Planting sticks 74 

4. Woven forehead band 76 

7 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 




CLIFF PALACE, FROM THE SPEAKER-C 



EF 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 1 




ANTIQUITIES OF THE MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



CLIFF PALACE 

By Jesse Walter Feavkes 
INTRODUCTION 

In the summer of 1909 the writer was detailed by the Secretary of 
the Smithsonian Institution, at the request of the Secretary of the 
Interior, to continue the excavation and repair of ruins in the 
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. This work was placed under 
his sole charge and continued through the months May to Au- 
gust, inclusive. In that time the writer was able to repair completely 
this great ruin and to leave it in such condition that tourists and 
students visiting it may learn much more about cliff-dwellings than 
was possible before the work was undertaken. 

The force of laborers, numbering on an average 15 workmen, was 
from Mancos, Colorado. Many of them had worked on Spruce-tree 
House during the previous year and had become expert in repairing 
ruins. By their aid it was possible to accomplish more and at less 
expense than was expected. It has fallen to the writer to prepare 
the report on the work which he had the honor to direct, and he is 
conscious how difficult it is to put it into a form that will adequately 
express the devotion with which those under him have accomplished 
their respective tasks. 

A report on the general results accomplished at Cliff Palace was 
published by the Secretary of the Interior in 1909; the following 
account considers in a more detailed way the various scientific phases. 
The purpose of the present paper is to present a more accurate ac- 
count of Cliff Palace than was possible before the excavation and 
repair work was done, and to increase existing knowledge by direct- 
ing attention to the scientific data revealed by excavations of this 
largest, most picturesque, and most typical cliff-dwelling in the South- 
west. In order to give this account a monographic form there have 
been introduced the most important descriptions of Cliff Palace previ- 
ously published. There is also included a description of the few minor 
antiquities brought to light in the progress of the work. These speci- 
mens are now in the United States National Museum, where they 

9 



10 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



form the nucleus of a collection from Cliff Palace. The increasing 
interest, local and national, in the prehistoric culture of the South- 
west and the influence of these antiquities in attracting visitors to 
localities where they exist, furnish a reason for considering in some 
detail various other questions of general interest connected with cliff- 
dwellings that naturally suggest themselves to those interested in the 
history of man in America. 

The method of work in this undertaking has been outlined in the 
report on Spruce-tree House published by the Secretary of the Inte- 
rior. a The primary thought has been to increase the educational 
value of Cliff Palace by attracting tourists and students of archeology. 

The reader is reminded that from the nature of the work at Cliff 
Palace very few specimens can be expected from it in the future, and 
that so far as the minor antiquities are concerned the objective mate- 
rial from this ruin is now all deposited in public museums or in pri- 
vate collections. Additional specimens can be obtained, however, 
from other ruins near it which will throw light on the culture of Clilf 
Palace. It is appropriate, therefore, to point out, at the very thresh- 
old of pur consideration, that a continuation of archeological work 
in the Mesa Verde National Park is desirable, as it will add to our 
knowledge of the character of prehistoric life in these canyons. 
The next work to be undertaken should be the excavation and repair 
of a Mesa Verde pueblo. The extensive mounds of stone and earth 
on the promontory west of Cliff Palace have not yet been excavated, 
and offer attractive possibilities for study and a promise of many 
specimens. Buried in these mounds there are undoubtedly many 
rooms, secular and ceremonial, which a season's work could uncover, 
thus enlarging indirectly our knowledge of the cliff-dwellers and 
their descendants. 6 

The writer considers it an honor to have been placed in charge of 
the excavation and repair of Cliff Palace, and takes this occasion to 
express high appreciation of his indebtedness to both the Secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution and the Secretary of the Interior for 
their confidence in his judgment in this difficult undertaking. 

Maj. Hans M. Eandolph, superintendent of the Mesa Verde 
National Park, gave assistance in purchasing the equipment, making 
out accounts, and in other ways. During the sojourn at Cliff Palace 
the writer was accompanied by Mr. E. G. Fuller, of the Peabody 
Museum of Harvard University, a volunteer assistant, who con- 

a In his Annual Report for 1908. See also Bulletin U of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology. 

6 A few holes that have been dug here and there in these mounds have brought to light 
sections of walls with good masonry, but no excavations that could be called extensive or 
scientific have yet been attempted on this site. The excavation of these mounds might 
reveal a pueblo like Walpi, and a comparison of objects from them with those from Cliff 
Palace would be important in tracing the relationship of cliff -dwellings and pueblos. 



FEWKES 1 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PAEK 



11 



tributed some of the photographs used in the preparation of the 
plates that accompany this report. The writer is indebted also to 
Mr. F. K. Vreeland, of Montclair, New Jersey, for several fine photo- 
graphs of Cliff Palace taken before the repairing was done. 

CLIFF PALACE A TYPE OF PREHISTORIC CULTURE 

In the following pages the walls and other remains of buildings 
and the objects found in the rooms have been treated from their cul- 
tural point of view. Considering ethnology, or culture history, as 
the comparative study of mental productions of groups of men in 
different epochs, and cultural archeology as a study of those objects 
belonging to a time antedating recorded history, there has been sought 
in Cliff Palace one type of prehistoric American culture, or rather 
a type of the mental production of a group of men in an environment 
where, so far as external influences are concerned, caves, mesas, and 
cliffs are predominant and aridity is a dominant climatic factor. 
Primarily archeology is a study of the expression of human intelli- 
gence, and it must be continually borne in mind that Cliff Palace was 
once the home of men and women whose minds responded to their sur- 
roundings. It is hoped that this monograph will be a contribution 
to a study of the influence of environment on the material condition of 
a group of prehistoric people. The condition of culture here brought 
to light is in part a result of experiences transmitted from one gen- 
eration to another, but while this heritage of culture is due to en- 
vironment, intensified by each transmission, there are likewise in it 
survivals of the culture due to antecedent environments, which have 
also been preserved by heredity, but has diminished in propor- 
tion, pari passu, as the epoch in which they originated is farther 
and farther removed in time from the environment that created them. 
These survivals occur mostly in myths and religious cult objects, and 
are the last to be abandoned when man changes his environment. 

It is believed that one advantage of a series of monographic de- 
scriptions of these ruins is found in the fact that the characteristics of 
individual ruins being known, more accurate generalizations concern- 
ing the entire culture will later be made possible by comparative 
studies. There is an individuality in Cliff Palace, not only in its 
architecture but also in a still greater measure in the symbolism of 
the pottery decoration. These features vary more or less in different 
ruins, notwithstanding their former inhabitants were of similar 
culture. These variations are lost in a general description of that 
culture. 

The reader is asked to bear in mind that when the repair of Cliff 
Palace was undertaken the vandalism wrought by those who had dug 
into it had destroyed much data and greatly reduced the possibility 



12 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



of generalizations on the character of its culture. The ruin had been 
almost completely rifled of its contents, the specimens removed, and 
its walls left in a very dilapidated condition. Much of the excavation 
carried on under the writer's supervision yielded meager scientific 
results so far as the discovery of specimens was concerned ; through- 
out the summer earth was being dug over that had already been ex- 
amined and cult objects removed. Had it been possible to have begun 
work on Cliff Palace just after the ruin was deserted by the abo- 
riginal inhabitants, or, as that was impossible, at least anticipated 
only by the destruction wrought by the elements, these explorations 
might have illumined many difficult problems which must forever 
remain unsolved. 

The present monograph is the second in a series dealing with the 
antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park and opening with the ac- 
count of the excavation and repair of Spruce-tree Housed An ex- 
haustive account of all known antiquities from Cliff Palace is not 
intended, and no reference is made even to many objects from that 
ruin now in museums. Discussion of details is not so much aimed at 
as brevity in the statement of results and a contribution to our 
knowledge of a typical form of Southwestern culture. Believing 
that modern Pueblo culture is the direct descendant of that of cliff- 
dwellers, the writer has not hesitated to make use of ethnology, when 
possible, in an interpretation of the archeological material. 

Although the name Cliff Palace is not altogether an appropriate 
one for this ruin, it is now too firmly fixed in the literature of cliff- 
dwellings to be changed. The term " palace " implies a higher social 
development than that which existed in this village, which undoubt- 
edly had a house chief similar to the village chief (kimongwi) of the 
Hopi, who occupied that position on account of being the oldest man 
of the oldest clan ; but this ruin is not the remains of a " palace " of 
such a chief. 

The population of Cliff Palace was composed of many clans, more 
or less distinct and independent, which were rapidly being amalga- 
mated by marriage; so we may regard the population as progressing 
toward a homogeneous community. Cliff Palace was practically a 
pueblo built in a cave; its population grew from both without and 
within : new clans from time to time joined those existing, while new 
births continually augmented the number of inhabitants. 

There was no water at Cliff Palace 6 when work began, but a good 
supply was developed in the canyon below the ruin, where there is 
every reason to believe the former inhabitants had their well. In 
a neighboring canyon, separated from that in which Cliff Palace is 



a Bulletin !jl of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

h AH potable water for camp had to be brought from Spruce-tree House, about 2 miles 
away. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 3 




PHOTOGRAPHED BY R. G. FULLER 



THE SOUTHERN END, AFTER AND BEFORE REPAIRING 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



13 



situated by a promontory at the north, there is also a meager seepage 
of water which was developed incidentally into a considerable supply. 
In the cliff above this water is a large cave in which was discovered 
the walls of a kiva of the second type, but the falling of a large block 
of rock upon it — which occurred subsequent to the construction of 
this kiva — led to its abandonment. This cave is extensive enough 
for a cliff-house as large as Cliff Palace; but for this accident it 
might have developed into a formidable rival of the latter. 

RECENT HISTORY 

It is remarkable that this magnificent ruin (pi. 1) so long escaped 
knowledge of white settlers in the neighboring Montezuma valley. 
Cliff Palace is not mentioned in early Spanish writings, and, indeed, 
the first description of it was not published until about 1890. 

Efforts to learn the name of the white man who discovered Cliff 
Palace were not rewarded with great success. According to Nor- 
denskiold it was first seen by Richard Wetherill and Charley Mason 
on a " December day in 1888," but several residents of the towns of 
Mancos and Cortez claim to have visited it before that time. One of 
the first of these visitors was a cattle owner of Mancos, Mr. James 
Frink, who told the author that he first saw T Cliff Palace in 1881, and 
as several stockmen were with him at that time it is probable that 
there are others who visited it the same year. We may conclude that 
Cliff Palace was unknown to scientific men in 1880, and the most we 
can definitely say is that it was first seen by white men some time in 
the decade 1880-1890. ff 

While there is considerable literature on the cliff-dwellings of the 
Mesa Yerde, individual ruins have not been exhaustively described. 
Much less has been published on Spruce-tree House than on Cliff 
Palace, which latter ruin, being the largest, has attracted more atten- 
tion than any other in the Park. As every cliff-house has its peculiar 
architectural features it is well in describing these buildings to refer 
to the ruins by names. This individuality in architecture pertains 
likewise to specimens, the majority of which in museums unfortu- 
nately are labeled merely " Mancos " or " Mesa Yerde." A large 
number of these objects probably came from Spruce-tree House and 
Cliff Palace, but it is now impossible to determine their exact 
derivation. 

The first extended account of Cliff Palace, accompanied with illus- 
trations, which is worthy of special mention, was published by Mr. 
F. H. Chapin, and so far as priority of publication is concerned he 



° It is generally stated by stockmen and others who claim to have seen Cliff Palace 
" years ago,"' that the walls of the buildings were much higher in the early eighties than 
they are at present. 



14 



BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



may be regarded as the first to make Cliff Palace known to the scien- 
tific world. Almost simultaneously with his article there appeared 
an account of the ruin by Doctor Birdsall, followed shortly by the 
superbly illustrated memoir of Baron Gustav Nordenskiold. All 
these writers adopt the name Cliff Palace, which apparently was first 
given to the ruin by Kichard Wetherill, one of the claimants for its 
discovery. Nordenskiold's work contains practically all that was 
known about Cliff Palace up to the beginning of the summer's field 
work herein described. 

Mr. Chapin a thus referred to Cliff Palace in a paper read before 
The Appalachian Mountain Club on February 13, 1890 : 

After a long ride we reached a camping-ground at the head of a branch of 
the left-hand fork of Cliff Canon. Hurriedly unpacking, we hobbled the horses 
that were the most likely to stray far, and taking along our photographic kit, 
wended our way on foot toward that remarkable group of ruins of which I 
have already spoken, and which Richard has called " the Cliff-Palace." At 
about three o'clock we reached the brink of the canon opposite the wonderful 
structure. Surely its discoverer had not overstated the beauty and magnitude 
of this strange ruin. There it was, occupying a great oval space under a grand 
cliff wonderful to behold, appearing like an immense ruined castle with dis- 
mantled towers. The stones in front were broken away, but behind them rose 
the walls of a second story ; and in the rear of these, in under the dark cavern, 
stood the third tier of masonry. Still farther back in the gloomy recess, little 
houses rested on upper ledges. A short distance down the canon are cosey 
buildings perched in utterly inaccessible nooks. The neighboring scenery is 
marvelous; the view down the canon to the Mancos is alone worth the journey 
to see. We stopped to take a few views, and then commenced the descent into 
the gulf below. What would otherwise have been a hazardous proceeding, was 
rendered easy by using the steps which had been cut in the wall by the builders 
of the fortress. There are fifteen of these scouped-out hollows in the rock, which 
covered perhaps half of the distance down the precipice. At that point the 
cliff had probably fallen away ; but luckily for our purpose, a dead tree leaned 
against the wall, and descending into its branches we reached the base of the 
parapet. In the bed of the canon is a secondary gulch, which required care in 
descending. We hung a rope or lasso over some steep, smooth ledges, and let 
ourselves down by it. We left it hanging there and used it to ascend by on our 
return. 

Nearer approach increased our interest in the marvel. From the south end 
of the ruin, which we first attained, trees hide the northern walls, yet the view 
is beautiful. We remained long, and ransacked the structure from one end to 
the other. According to Richard's measurements, the space covered by the 
building is 425 feet long, 80 feet high in front, and 80 feet deep in the centre. 
One hundred and twenty-four rooms have been traced on the ground floor, and 
a thousand people may have lived within its confines. So many walls have 
fallen that it is difficult to reconstruct the building in imagination; but the 
photographs show that there must have been many stories. There are towers 
and circular rooms, square and rectangular enclosures; yet all with a seeming 
symmetry, though in some places the walls look as if they were put up as addi- 
tions in later periods. One of the towers is barrel-shaped ; other circles are true. 



"Appalachian \i, 28-30, May, 1890, Boston, 1892. 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



15 



The diameter of one circular room, or estufa, is sixteen feet and six inches. 
There are six piers, which are well plastered. There are five recess-holes, which 
appear as if constructed for shelves. In several rooms we observed good fire- 
places. In another room, where the outer walls have fallen away, we found 
that an attempt had been made at ornamentation: a broad band had been 
painted across the wall, and above it is a peculiar decoration which shows in 
one of our photographs. The lines are similar to embellishment on pottery 
which we found. We observed in one place corn-cobs imbedded in the plaster 
in the walls, showing that the cob is as old as that portion of the dwelling. 
The cobs, as well as kernels of corn which we found, are of small size, similar to 
what the Ute squaws raise now without irrigation. We found a large stone 
mortar, which may have been used to grind the corn. Broken pottery was 
everywhere ; like specimens in the other cliff houses, it was similar in design to 
that which we picked up in the valley ruins near Wetherill's ranch, convincing 
us of the identity of the builders of the two classes of ruins. We also found 
parts of skulls and bones, fragments of weapons, and pieces of cloth. One 
nearly complete skeleton lies on a wall waiting for some future antiquarian. 
The burial-place of the clan was down under the rear of the cave. 

Dr. W. R. Birdsall, a who in 1891 gave an account of the cliff- 
dwellings of the canyons of the Mesa Verde, which contains consider- 
able information regarding these buildings, thus refers specially to 
Cliff Palace: 

Richard Wetherill discovered an unusually large group of buildings which 
he named " The Cliff Palace," in which the ground plan showed more than one 
hundred compartments, covering an area over four hundred feet in length and 
eighty feet in depth in the wider portion. Usually the buildings are continuous 
where the configuration of the cliffs permitted such construction. 

In the following account Baron Nordenskiold has given us the 
most exhaustive description of Cliff Palace yet published :^ 

In a long, but not very deep branch of Cliff Canon, a wild and gloomy gorge 
named Cliff Palace Canon, lies the largest of the ruins on the Mesa Verde, 
the Cliff Palace. Strange and indescribable is the impression on the traveller, 
when, after a long and tiring ride through the boundless, monotonous pinon 
forest, he suddenly halts on the brink of the precipice, and in the opposite cliff 
beholds the ruins of the Cliff Palace, framed in the massive vault of rock above 
and in a bed of sunlit cedar and pinon trees below (PI. XII). This ruin well 
deserves its name, for with its round towers and high walls rising out of 
the heaps of stones deep in the mysterious twilight of the cavern, and defying in 
their sheltered site the ravages of time, it resembles at a distance an enchanted 
castle. It is not surprising that the Cliff Palace so long remained undiscovered. 
An attempt to follow Cliff Palace Canon upward from Cliff Canon meets with 
almost insurmountable obstacles in the shape of huge blocks of stone which 
have fallen from the cliffs and formed a barrier across the narrow water course, 
in most parts of the canon the only practicable path between the steep walls of 
rock. Through the pinon forest, which renders the mesa a perfect labyrinth to 

a Jour. Amer. Geog. Boc, xxiil, no. 4, 598, New York, 1891. 

6 In The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde (a translation in English from the Swedish 
edition, Stockholm, 1893), (pp. 59-66), unfortunately not accessible to most readers on 
account of the limited edition and the cost. For this reason the description is here repro- 
duced in extenso. (The references to illustrations and the footnotes in this excerpt follow 
Nordenskiold.) 



16 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



the uninitiated, chance alone can guide the explorer to the exact spot from which 
a view of Cliff Palace is possible. 

The descent to the ruin may be made from the mesa either on the opposite 
side of the canon, or on the same a few hundred paces north or south of the 
cliff-dwelling. The Cliff Palace is probably the largest ruin of its kind known in 
the United States. I here give a plan of the ruin (PI. XI) together with a 
photograph thereof, taken from the south end of the cave (PI. XII). In the 
plan, which represents the ground floor, over a hundred rooms are shown. 
About twenty of them are estufas. Among the rubbish and stones in front of 
the ruin a few more walls, not marked in the plan, may possibly be distinguished. 

Plate XIII, as I have just mentioned, is a photograph of the Cliff Palace from 
the south. To the extreme left of the plate a number of much dilapidated walls 
may be seen. They correspond to rooms 1-12 in the plan. To the right of 
these walls lies a whole block of rooms (13-18), several stories high and 
built on a huge rock which has fallen from the roof of the cave. The outermost 
room (14 in the plan; to the left in PI. XIII) is bounded on the outside by 
a high wall, the outlines of which stand off sharply from the dark background 
of the cave. The wall is built in a quadrant at the edge of the rock just men- 
tioned, which has been carefully dressed, the wall thus forming apparently an 
immediate continuation of the rock. The latter is coursed by a fissure which 
also extends through the wall. This crevice must therefore have appeared sub- 
sequent to the building operation. To the right of this curved wall (still in 
PI. XIII) lie four rooms (15-18 in the plan), and in front of them two 
terraces (21-22) connected by a step. One of the rooms is surrounded by 
walls three stories high and reaching up to the roof of the cave. The terraces 
are bounded to the north (the left in PI. XIII) by a rather high wall, standing 
apart from the remainder of the building. Not far from the rooms just men- 
tioned, but a little farther back, lie two cylindrical chambers (21 a, 23). The 
wall of 21 a is shown in PI. XIII with a beam resting against it. The beam had 
been placed there Jby one of the Wetherills to assist him in climbing to an upper 
ledge, where low walls, resembling the fortress at Long House (p. 28), rise 
almost to the roof of the cave. The round room 23 is joined by a wall to a 
long series of chambers (26-41), which are very low, though their walls extend 
to the rock above them. They probably served as storerooms. These chambers 
front on a " street," on the opposite side of which lie a number of apartments a 
(42-50), among them a remarkable estufa (44) described at greater length 
below. In front of 44 lies another estufa (51), and not far from the latter 
a third (52). 

The "street" leads to an open space. Here lie three estufas (54, 55, 56), 
partly sunk in the ground. Much lower down is situated another estufa (57) 
of the same type as 44. It is surrounded by high walls. 6 South of the open 
space lie a few large rooms (58-61). A tower (63 in the plan; the large 
tower to the right in PI. XIII) is situated still farther south, beside a steep 
ledge.- This ledge, north of the tower (to the left in the plate), once formed a 
free terrace (62), bounded on the outside by a low wall along the margin. 
South of the tower is an estufa (76) surrounded by an open space, southeast 
of which are a number of rooms (80-87). In most of them, even in the 
outermost ones, the walls are in an excellent state of preservation. The wall 

a The room marked 48 in the plan is visible in PI. XIII. Almost in the center of the 
plate, but a little to the right, two small loopholes may be seen, and to their right a 
doorway, all of which belong to room 48 ; the walls of 49 and 50 are much lower than 
those of 48. Behind 48 the high walls of 43 may be distinguished. 

6 They are shown in the plate just to the left of the fold at its middle, rather low down. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 5 




THE ROUND TOWER, FROM THE NORTH 




PHOTOGRAPHED BY F. K. VREELAND 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUIN, BEFORE REPAIRING 



F E W EES ] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



17 



nearest to the talus slope is 0 metres high and built with great care and skill. a 
South of these rooms and close to the cliff lies a well-preserved estufa (88), 
and south of the latter four rooms are situated, two of them (90, 92) very small. 
The walls of the third (91) are very high and rise to the roof of the cave. At 
one corner the walls have fallen in. This room is figured in a subsequent 
chapter in order to show a painting found on one of its walls. Near the cliff 
lies the last estufa (93). in an excellent state of preservation. The rooms 
south of this estufa are bounded on the outer side by a high wall rising to the 
rock above it. An excellent defense was thus provided against attack in this 
quarter. 

Two of the estufas in the Cliff Palace deviate from the normal type. This is 
the only instance where I have observed estufas differing in construction from 
the ordinary form described in Chapter III. The northern estufa (44 in 
the plan) is the better preserved of the two. To a height of 1 meter from the 
floor it is square in form (3X3 m.) with rounded corners (see figs. .35 and 
36). Above it is wider and bounded by the walls of the surrounding rooms, 
a ledge (&, &) of irregular shape being thus formed a. few feet from the floor. 
In two of the rounded corners on a level with this ledge (a little to the right 
in fig. 36) niches or hollows {d, d ; breadth 48 cm., depth 45 cm.) have been 
constructed, and between them, at the middle of the south-east wall, a narrow 
passage (breadth 40 cm.), open at the top. At the bottom of one side of this 
passage a continuation thereof was found, corresponding probably to the tunnel 
in estufas of the ordinary type. At the north corner of the room the wall 
is broken by three small niches (e, e, c) quite close together, each of them 
occupying a space about equal to that left by the removal of two stones from 
the wall. The sandstone blocks of which the walls are built are carefully 
hewn, as in the ordinary cylindrical estufas. Whether the usual hearth, in form 
of a basin, and the wall beside it, had been constructed here I was unfortu- 
nately unable to determine, more than half of the room being filled with rub- 
bish. I give the name of estufas to these square rooms with rounded cor- 
ners, built as described above, because they are furnished with the passage 
characteristic of the round estufas in the cliff-dwellings. Perhaps they mark 
the transition to the rectangular estufa of the Moki Indians. Besides the estufas 
there are some other round rooms or towers (21 a, 23, 63), which evidently be- 
longed to the fortifications of the village. They differ from the estufas in the 
absence of the characteristic passage and also of the six niches. Furthermore, 
they often contain several stories, and in every respect but the form resemble 
the rectangular rooms. The long wall just mentioned, built on a narrow ledge 
above the other ruins, and visible at the top of PI. XIII was probably another 
part of the village fortifications. The ledge is situated so near the roof of the 
cave that the wall, though quite low. touches the latter, and the only way of 
advancing behind it is to creep on hands and knees. 

A comparison between PI. VIII and PL XIII shows at once that the inhabit- 
ants of the Cliff Palace were further advanced in architecture than their more 
western kinsfolk on the Mesa Verde. The stones are carefully dressed and often 
laid in regular courses ; the walls are perpendicular, sometimes leaning slightly 
inwards at the same angle all round the room — this being part of the design. 
All the corners form almost perfect right angles, when the surroundings have 
permitted the builders to observe this rule. This remark also applies to the 
doorways, the sides of which are true and even. The lintel often consists of 

a A part of this wall may be seen to the extreme right of PI. XIII, and also in fig. 34 
behind and to the right of the tower. 



44726°— Bull. 51—11 2 



18 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



a large stone slab, extending right across the opening. On closer observation 
we find, that in the Cliff Palace we may discriminate two slightly different 
methods of building. The lower walls, where the stones are only rough-hewn 
and laid without order, are often surmounted by walls of carefully dressed 
blocks in regular courses. This circumstance suggests that the cave was 
inhabited during two different periods. I shall have occasion below to return 
to this question. 

The rooms of the Cliff Palace seem to have been better provided with light 
and air than the cliff-dwellings in general, small peep-holes appearing at 
several places in the walls. The doorways, as in other cliff-dwellings, are 
either rectangular or T-shaped. Sortie of the latter are of unusual size, in 
one instance 1.05 m. high and 0.81 m. broad at the top. The thickness of the 
walls is generally about 0.3 m., sometimes, in the outer walls, as much as 0.6 m. 
As a rule they are not painted, but in some rooms covered with a thin coat of 
yellow plaster. At the south end of the ruin lies an estufa (93) which is 
well-preserved (fig. 37). This estufa is entered by a doorway in the wall, 
one of the few instances where I have observed this arrangement. In most 
cases, as I have already mentioned, the entrance was probably constructed in 
the roof. The dimensions of this estufa were as follows : diameter 3.9 m., 
distance from the floor to the bottom of the niches 1.2 m., height of the niches 
0.9 m., breadth of the same 1.3 m., depth of the same 0.5 to 1.3 m., height of 
the passage at its mouth 0.75 m., breadth of the same 0.45 m. Five small 
quadrangular holes or niches were scattered here and there in the lower part 
of the wall. 

I cannot refrain from once more laying stress on the skill to which the walls 
of Cliff Palace in general bear witness, and the stability and strength which has 
been supplied to them by the careful dressing of the blocks and the chinking 
of the interstices with small chips of stone. A point remarked by Jackson in 
his description of the ruins of Southwestern Colorado, is that the finger marks 
of the mason may still be traced in the mortar, and that those marks are so 
small as to suggest that the work of building was performed by women. This 
conclusion seems too hasty, for within the range of my observations the size of 
the finger marks varies not a little. 

Like Sprucetree House and other large ruins the Cliff Palace contains at 
the back of the cave extensive open spaces where tame turkeys were probably 
kept. In this part of the village three small rooms, isolated from the rest of 
the building, occupy a position close to the cliff; two of them (103, 104), built 
of large flat slabs of stones, lie close together, the third (105), of unhewn 
sandstone (fig. 38), is situated farther north. These rooms may serve as 
examples of the most primitive form of architecture among the cliff people. 

In the Cliff Palace, the rooms lie on different levels, the ground occupied by 
them being very rough. In several places terraces have been constructed in 
order .to procure a level foundation, and here as in their other architectural 
labours, the cliff-dwellers have displayed considerable skill. 

One very remarkable circumstance in the Cliff Palace is that all the pieces of 
timber, all the large rafters, have disappeared. The holes where they passed 
into the walls may Still be seen, but throughout the great block of ruins two 
or three large beams are all that remain. This is the reason why none of the 
rooms is completely closed. At Sprucetree House there were a number of 
rooms where the placing of the door stone in position was enough to throw the 
room into perfect darkness, no little aid to the execution of photographic work. 
It is difficult to explain the above state of things. I observed the same want of 
timber in parts of other ruins (at Long House for example). In several of 
the cliff-dwellings it appears as if the beams had purposely been removed from 



FBWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



19 



the walls to be applied to some other use. Seldom, however, have all the rafters 
disappeared, as in the Cliff Palace. There are no traces of the ravages of fire. 
Perhaps the inhabitants were forced, during the course of a siege, to use the 
timber as fuel ; but in that case it is difficult to understand bow a proportionate 
supply of provisions and water was obtained. This is one of the numerous 
circumstances which are probably connected with the extinction or migration 
of the former inhabitants, but from which our still scanty information of the 
cliff-dwellers cannot lift the veil of obscurity. 

Iii addition to his description Nordenskiold gives a ground plan 
of Cliff Palace" (pi. xi) ; a magnificent double page view of 
the ruin from the west (pi. xiii) ; a fine picture of Speaker-chief's 
House (pi. xn ) ; a view of the Round Tower (fig. 34) ; a figure and a 
plan of an estufa of singular construction (T) ; a view of the interior 
of Kiva C and of a small room at the back of the main rows of 
rooms. No specimens of pottery, stone implements, and kindred 
antiquities from Cliff Palace are figured by Nordenskiold. In vari- 
ous places throughout his work this author refers to Cliff Palace in a 
comparative way, and in his descriptions of other ruins the student 
will find more or less pertaining to it. 

In his book The Cliff Dwellers and Pueblos, 6 Rev. Stephen D. 
Peet devotes one chapter (VII) to Cliff Palace and its surroundings, 
compiling and quoting from Chapin, Birdsall, and Nordenskiold. 
No new data appear in this work, and the illustrations are copied 
from these authors. 

Dr. Edgar L. Hewett c briefly refers to Cliff Palace as follows 
(p. 54) : 

II suffira de decrire les traits principaux d'un seul groupement de ruines, et 
nous choisirons Cliff Palace, qui en est le specimen le plus remarquable (pi. i 
&). II est situe dans un bras de Ruin Canyon. La vue presentee ici est prise 
d'un point plus eleve, an sucl, d'ou Ton contemple les ruines d'une ville ancienne, 
avec des tours rondes et carrees, des maisons, des entrepots pour le grain, des 
habitations et des lieux de cnlte. Le Cliff Palace remplit une immense caverne 
bien clef endue et a l'abri des ravages des elements. Un sentier conduit aux 
ruines. Le plan (Fig. 2) represente les restes de 105 chambres au plain-pied. 
On ne sait combien il y en avait dans les 3 etages superieurs, mais il est proba- 
ble que Cliff-Palace n'abritait pas moins de 500 personnes. 

Nous remarquons a Cliff-Palace de grands progres dans l'art de la construc- 
tion. Les murs sont faits de gres gris, faille avec des outils de pierre, dont on 
voit encore les traces. Lorsqu'on se servait de pierres irregulieres, les crevasses 
etaient remplies avec des fragments ou des eclats de gr&s, puis on platrait les 
murs avec du mortier d'adobe. On prenait de .grosses poutres pour les pla- 
fonds et les planchers, et Ton peut voir que ces poutres etaient degrossies avec 
des instruments peu tranchants. 

a The illustrations referred to in this paragraph are in Nordenskiold's work. 

6 As stated in a note (Peet, p. 133) Chapter VII is a reprint of Doctor Birdsall's 
article in the Journal of the American Geographical Society, op. cit. 

c In Les Communautes Anciennes dans le Desert Americain. In this work may be found 
a ground plan of Cliff Palace by Morley and Kidder, the interior of kiva Q (pi. viii, e), 
and a large view of the ruin taken from the north (pi. i, 6). (Plate and figure designa- 
tions from HewettJ 



20 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



Many newspaper and magazine accounts of the Mesa Verde ruins 
appeared about the time Mr. Chapin's description was published, but 
the majority of these are somewhat distorted and more or less ex- 
aggerated, often too indefinite for scientific purposes. References to 
them, even if here quoted, could hardly be of great value to the 
reader, as in most cases it would be impossible for him to consult files 
of papers in Avhich they occur even if the search were worth while. 
Much that they record is practically a compilation from previous 
descriptions. 

The activity in photographing Cliff Palace has done much to make 
known its existence and structure. Many excellent photographs of 
the ruin have been taken, among which may be mentioned those of 
Chapin, Nordenskiolcl, Vreeland, Nusbaum, and others. Oil paint- 
ings, some of which are copied from photographs, others made from 
the ruin itself, adorn the walls of some of our museums. Almost 
every visitor to the Mesa Verde carries with him a camera, and many 
good postal cards with views of the ruin are on the market. Xega- 
tives of Cliff Palace taken before its excavation and repair will be- 
come more valuable as time passes, because they can no longer be 
duplicated. From a study of a considerable number of these photo- 
graphs it seems that very little change has taken place in the condi- 
tion of the ruin between the time the first pictures were made and 
the repair work was begun. 

SITE OF CLIFF PALACE 

Cliff Palace is situated in a cave in Cliff-palace canyon, a branch of 
Cliff canyon, which is here about 200 feet deep. It occupies practi- 
cally the whole of the cave, the roof of which overhangs about two- 
thirds of the ruin, projecting considerably beyond its middle. This 
cave is much more capacious than that in which Spruce-tree House is 
situated, as shown by comparing illustrations and descriptions of 
the latter in the former report. The configuration of Spruce-tree 
House cave and that of Cliff Palace, and the relation of its floor to 
the talus, also differ. The canyon in which Cliff Palace lies is 
thickly wooded, having many cedars and a few pines and scrub 
oaks ; the almost total failure of water at certain seasons of the year 
at Cliff Palace renders floral life in the vicinity less exuberant than 
in Spruce-tree canyon, a branch of Navaho canyon (fig. 1). On the 
level plateau above the ruin there are many trees— pines and cedars— 
but even this area is not so thickly wooded as the summit of the 
mesa above Spruce-tree Housed 

■ Clearings in the forest indicate the positions of the former farms of the inhabitants 
of Cliff Palace. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 7 




PHOTOGRAPHED BY R. G. FULLER 



SOUTHERN END, AFTER REPAIRING 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



21 



The geological, formation of the cave in which Cliff Palace is 
situated is similar to that at Spruce-tree House, consisting of alter- 
nating layers of hard and soft sandstone, shale, and even layers of 
coal. Both canyons and caves appear to have been formed by the 
same processes. In past ages the elements have eroded and under- 
mined the soft layers of sandstone or shale to such an extent that 
great blocks of rock, being left without foundations, have broken 
away from above, falling down the precipice. Many of these great 
bowlders remained on the floor of a cave where it was broad enough 
to retain them. The surface of the roof arching over Cliff Pal- 
ace cave is per- 
haps smoother 
than that of 
Spruce - tree 
House. The prog- 
ress of cave ero- 
sion was greatly 
augmented by the 
flow of water 
from the mesa 
summit d u ring 
heavy rains, as 
hereinafter 
described. 

To understand 
the general plan 
of Cliff Palace it 
is necessary to 
take into consid- 
eration the meth- 
od of formation 
and the configura- 
tion of the cave 
floor on which the ruin stands. This cave, as already stated, was 
formed by erosion or undercutting the softer rock at a lower level 
than the massive sandstone, leaving huge blocks of stone above 
the eroded cavities. Naturally these blocks, being without sup- 
port, fell, and in falling were broken, the larger fragments remain- 
ing on the floor practically in the places where they fell, but many 
of the smaller stones were washed out of the cave entrance, forming a 
talus extending down the side of the cliff. The floor of the cave was 
thus strewn with stones, large and small, resting on the same general 
level which is that on which the foundations of the buildings were con- 
structed. The level of the cave floor was interrupted by the huge 
blocks of stone forming its outer margin ; and the buildings constructed 
on these fallen rocks were lofty, even imposing. The talus composed of 




Fig. 1. — View down Navaho Canyon. 



22 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN" ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



fallen rock and debris, piled against the canyon side in front of these 
buildings and below these huge blocks of stone, extends many feet 
down the cliff in a gradual slope, covering the terraced buildings and 
burying their retaining walls from sight. 0 A great part of this 
talus is composed of fallen walls, but considerable earth and small 
stones are contained in it, probably precipitated over the rim of the 
cave roof by the torrents of water which sometimes fall during heavy 
rains. It is probable also that the foresting of the talus has been due 
more or less to bushes and small trees washed over the cliff from the 
mesa summit. 

Three terraces or tiers containing rooms, as shown in the accom- 
panying ground plan, were revealed by excavations in this talus. At 
the western extension, where the second and third terraces cease, the 
tops of large rocks begin at the level of the fourth terrace, and on 
the southern end the first terrace is absent. At the western extremity, 
the large blocks of rock having dropped down entire from the side of 
the cliff, fill the interval elsewhere occupied by the lower terraces, and 
their tops now form a ledge upon which rest the foundations of rooms 
level with the plaza. It is thus evident that whereas the front wall of 
Spruce-tree House is simple, the level of the kiva roofs and floors 
of buildings above ground being continuous, the front of Cliff Palace 
is complicated, being at different levels, consisting of terraces in the 
talus. As one aproached Cliff Palace, when inhabited, it must 
have presented, from below, an imposing structure, the lower ter- 
races being occupied by man} 7 large kivas above which rose lofty 
buildings arranged in tiers, several being four stories high. Although 
the height was much increased by the presence of huge foundation 
blocks of sandstone, from the lowest terrace to the highest room there 
were seven floor levels, including those of the kivas in the terraces. 

An examination of Cliff Palace cave shows that from the southern 
end to the section over the main entrance its roof arches upward and 
that the part over the rear of the ruin is lower than that over its 
front. Between the lower and upper roof levels there is a sharp 
break formed by a vertical cleavage plane. Where this plane joins 
the upper level there is a shelf forming a recess in which has been 
constructed a row of ledge rooms. 6 

The great rock roof arching over Cliff Palace is broken about mid- 
way between the vertical plane above mentioned and the rim by 
another and narrower vertical plane where no ledge exists. Here 
multitudes of swallows had made their home, and there are wasps' 
nests in several places. 

a Access to Cliff Palace from the bottom of the canyon, although difficult, is possible, 
and a pathway might be constructed down its sides or along the' top of the talus to 
several other cliff -dwellings. In the vicinity of Cliff Palace there are at least 20 ruins, 
large and small. 

b One of these rooms had been chosen by eagles for their nests, but both nests and eggs 
were abandoned by the birds after the repair work was begun. 



BUREAU OF AMERIC, 




Subterr 
Ki 




GROUND PLAN 



fffiWKEs] ANTTQUTTTES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 23 



PREHISTORIC TRAILS TO CLIFF PALACE 

It is evident that the prehistoric farmers of Cliff Palace repeatedly 
visited their fields among the cedars on top of the mesa, and well- 
worn trails led from their habitation to these clearings. Several such 
trails have long been known, one of which was formerly exclusively 
used by white visitors and was facetiously called " Fat Man's Misery." 
To another ancient pathway, near which ladders were placed, the 
name " Ladder Trail " may be applied. The pathways now used by 
visitors follow approximately these old trails, which were simply 
series of shallow footholes cut in the cliff. Although the lapse of 
time since they were pecked in the rock has somewhat diminished 
their depth, they can still be used by an adventurous climber. 

GENERAL FEATURES 

Cliff Palace (pis. 1, 2), the most instructive cliff-house yet dis- 
covered in the Mesa Verde National Park, if not in the United States, 
is one of the most picturesque ruins in the Southwest. While its gen- 
eral contour follows that of the rear of the cave in which it is situ- 
ated, its two extremities project beyond the cavern. The entire cen- 
tral part is protected by the cave roof ; the ends are exposed. 

The general orientation of Cliff Palace is north and south, the cave 
lying at the eastern end of the canyon of which it is an extension. 
The southern end is practically outside this cave, and the few rooms 
westward from kiva V are unprotected. An isolated kiva, W, with 
high surrounding walls, is situated some distance beyond the extreme 
western end of the ruin. Although not in the same cave as the main 
ruin, certain other rooms in the vicinity of Cliff Palace may have 
been ceremonially connected with it. They are built in shallow 
depressions in the cliffs and may have been shrines or rooms to which 
priests retreated for the purpose of performing their rites. In the 
category of dependent structures may also be mentioned numerous 
rings of stones on top of the mesa. The existence of calcined human 
bones in the soil over which these stones are heaped indicates the prac- 
tice of cremation, of which there is also evidence in the ruin itself. 

Destruction by the Elements 

The constant beating of rain and snow, often accompanied in 
winter by freezing of water in the crevices of the masonry, has sadly 
dilapidated a large part of the front walls of Cliff Palace, especially 
those at the northern and southern ends (pi. 3) where they do not 
have the protection of the overhanging roof of the cave. 



24 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



While the sections known as the old quarter, the plaza quarter, and 
much of the tower quarter are protected by the roof of the cave, even 
here there has been exposure and destruction from the same cause. 
Torrential rains on the mesa in the late summer form streams of 
water which, following depressions,® flow over the rim of the cave 
roof and are precipitated into the trees beyond the lowest terrace of 
the ruin. The destruction of walls from these flows is much less 
than that from smaller streams which, following the edge of the cave 
roof, run under the roof and drip on the walls, washing the mortar 
from between the component stones, and eventually undermining 
their foundation and leading to their fall. The former presence of 
these streams is indicated by the black discoloration of the cave roof 
shown in photographs. 

A visitor to Cliff Palace in the dry season can hardly imagine the 
amount of rain that occasionally falls during the summer months, 
and it is difficult for him to appreciate the destructive force it exerts 
when precipitated over the cliff. When Cliff Palace was occupied, 
damage to walls could be immediately repaired by the inhabitants 
after every torrent, but as the ruin remained for centuries uninhab- 
ited and without repair, the extent of the destruction was great. The 
torrents falling over the ruin not only gain force from the distance 
of the fall, but sweep everything before them, bringing down earth, 
stones, small trees, and bushes. At such a time the bottom of the 
canyon is filled with a roaring torrent fed by waterfalls that can be 
seen at intervals far down the gorge. The observer standing in 
Cliff Palace during such a downpour can behold a sheet of water 
falling over the projecting cliff in front of him. These cataracts 
fortunately are never of long duration, but while they last their 
power is irresistible. 6 

Vandalism 

No ruin in the Mesa Verde Park had suffered more from the rav- 
ages of "pot hunters" than Cliff Palace; indeed it had been much 
more mutilated than the other ruins in the park (pis. 1, 4, 5). Par- 
ties of workmen had remained at the ruin all winter, and many speci- 
mens had been taken from it and sold. There was good evidence 
that the workmen had wrenched beams from the roofs and floors to 
use for firewood, so that not a single roof and but few rafters re- 
mained in place. However, no doubt many of the beams had been 

" In some of these waterways are found good examples of " potholes," some of con- 
siderable size, which often retain water for a long time. Their capacity was increased in 
prehistoric times by the construction of dams. 

b While there has probably been considerable erosion in the bed of the canyon since Cliff 
Palace was constructed, this does not mean that " the action of the water carved out the 
valley, leaving at an inaccessible height buildings originally constructed on almost level 
land." See History N. Y. State Chapter, Colorado Cliff Dwellings Assoc., p. 11. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 9 




SOUTHERN END, SHOWING REPAIRED TERRACES 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 25 

removed, possibly by cliff-dwellers, long before white men first visited 
the place. 

Many of the walls had been broken down and their foundations 
undermined, leaving great rents through them to let in light or to 
allow passage from the debris thrown in the rooms as dumping 
places. Hardly a floor had not been dug into, and some of the finest 
walls had been demolished. 0 All this was done to obtain pottery and 
other minor antiquities that had a market value. The arrest of this 
vandalism is fortunate and shows an awakened public sentiment, 
but it can not repair the irreparable harm that has been done. 

Repair of Walls 

The masonry work necessary to repair a ruin as large and as much 
demolished as Cliff Palace was very considerable. The great- 
est amount was expended on those walls in front of the cave floor 
hidden under the lower terraces, at the northern and southern ex- 
tremities. The latter portion was so completely destroyed that it 
had to be rebuilt in some places, while at the southern end an equal 
amount of repair work was necessary. (Pis. 3, 6, 7, 9.) To perma- 
nently protect these sections of the ruin the tops of the walls and 
the plazas were liberally covered with Portland cement, and run- 
ways were constructed to carry off the surface water into gutters 
by which it was diverted over the retaining walls to fall on the rock 
foundations beyond. It would be impossible permanently to protect 
some of these exposed walls without constructing roofs above them ; 
at present every heavy rain is bound to cover the floors of the kivas 
with Avater and thus eventually to undermine their foundations. 

The preservation of walls deep in the cave under protection of the 
roof was not a difficult problem. The work in this part consisted 
chiefly in the repair of kiva walls, building them to their former 
height at the level of neighboring plazas. 

Major Antiquities 

Under this term are embraced those immovable objects as walls 
of houses and their various structural parts- — floors, roofs, and fire- 
places. These features must of necessity be protected in place 
and left where they were constructed. Minor antiquities, as imple- 
ments of various kinds, stone objects, pottery, textiles, and the like, 
can best be removed and preserved in a museum, where they can be 
seen to greater advantage and by a much larger number of people. 
The ideal way would be to preserve both major and minor antiquities 



" Some, possibly considerable, of this mutilation may be ascribed to the former occu- 
pants. The TJte Indians will not now enter cliff-dwellings and probably are not responsi- 
ble for their destruction. 



26 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



together in the same neighborhood, or to install the latter in the 
places in which they were found. While at present such an arrange- 
ment at Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace is not practicable, large 
specimens, as metates and those jars that are embedded in the walls, 
have, as a rule, been left as they were found. 

As the repair work at Cliff Palace was limited to the protection 
of the major antiquities, the smaller objects for the greater part 
having been removed before our work began, this report deals more 
especially with the former, the whole rain being regarded as a great 
specimen to be preserved in situ. 

Very little attention was given to labeling rooms, kivas, and their 
different parts, the feeling being that this experiment has been suffi- 
ciently well carried out at Spruce-tree House, an examination of 
which would logically precede that of Cliff Palace. Spruce-tree 
House has been made a " type ruin " from which the tourist can gain 
his first impression of the major antiquities of the Mesa Verde 
National Park, and while it was well to indicate on its walls the 
different features characteristic of these buildings, it would be re- 
dundant to carry out the same plan in the other ruins. 0 

No attempt was made to restore the roof of any of the Cliff Palace 
kivas for the reason that one can gain a good idea of how the roof of a 
circular kiva is constructed from its restoration in Kiva C of Spruce- 
tree House, and an effort to roof a kiva of Cliff Palace would merely 
duplicate what has already been accomplished without adding essen- 
tially to our knowledge. 

GENERAL PLAN OF CLIFF PALACE 

The ground plans of Cliff Palace which have been published were 
made from surface indications before excavations were undertaken 
and necessarily do not represent all the rooms. Nordenskiold's map 
outlines 17 kivas and 102 rooms, indicating se\ r eral kivas by dotted 
lines. The Morley-Kidder map, which represents positions of 18 or 
19 kivas, notes 105 secular rooms. 6 Although this ground plan is an 
improvement on that of Nordenskiold, it also was based on surface 
indications and naturally fails to indicate those kivas that were buried 
under the fallen walls of the terraces. Strangely enough, in Nor- 
denskiold's ground plan Kiva K is omitted, notwithstanding the tops 
of one or two pilasters were readily seen before any excavation was 

a The author's hope is to excavate and repair in different sections of the Southwest a 
number of " type ruins," each of which will illustrate the major antiquities of the area in 
which it occurs. From an examination of these types the tourist and the student. may 
obtain, at first hand, an accurate knowledge of the prehistoric architecture. 

& In " Report, House of Representatives, No. 3703, 58th Congress," Mr. Coert Dubois 
ascribes to Cliff House (Cliff Palace) 146 rooms and 5 estufas (kivas). Unfortunately the 
error in the count of kivas has been given wide circulation. As stated in the present 
article, there are at least 23 rooms in Cliff Palace that may be called kivas. 



Fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PAEK 27 



made. Neither of these plans distinguishes those buildings that have 
more than a single story, although they show the parts of walls that 
extend to the roof. Neither Chapin nor Birdsall published maps of 
Cliff Palace. (See pi. 8.) 

Terraces and Retaining Walls 

The terraces in front of the rooms occupying the floor of the cave are 
characteristic features of Cliff Palace (pis. 9, 10). The excavations 
revealed three of these terraces, of which the floor of the cave is the 
fourth. This fourth terrace, or cave floor, is in the main horizontal, 
but on account of the accumulated talus the slope from the southern 
end of the portion in front of kiva G was gradual and continued at 
about this level to the northern end of the ruin. This slope brought it 
about that kivas in the terraces are at different levels. The floors of 
kivas H and I lie on about the level of the first terrace, that of G on the 
terrace above, and F lies on the third terrace; the remaining kivas 
are all excavated in the cave floor, or fourth terrace. From the main 
entrance to the ruin, extending northward, there are representations 
of the second and third terraces, both of which extend to the cliff in 
front of kiva U. It is probable from the general appearance of the 
ruin that when all the terraces and walls were intact Cliff Palace was 
also terraced with houses along the front, which recalls architectural 
features in certain cliff-dwellings in Canyon de Chelry. 

Tower Quarter 

For convenience of description Cliff Palace is arbitrarily divided 
into four quarters, known as tower quarter, plaza quarter, old quarter, 
and northern quarter. The tower quarter (pis. 10-14) occupies the 
whole southern portion of the ruin and extends to the extreme south- 
ern end from a line drawn perpendicular to the cliff through the 
round tower. It includes 8 kivas, A to G, and J, 6 of which, A, B, 
C, D, E, and J, are situated on the fourth terrace, the level of the 
kiva floor being that of the third terrace. Kiva F lies in the third, 
and G in the second terrace. It will be seen from an inspection of the 
ground plan that there are in all 29 rooms in this quarter, besides the 
8 kivas, an instructive fact when compared with Spruce-tree House 
with its 8 kivas and 114 rooms. It must be remembered that several 
of the rooms in this quarter are of two stories, one is of three stories, 
and one of four stories, thus adding from 15 to 20 rooms to the 8 
enumerated as occupying the ground floor. The proportion of cere- 
monial rooms to kivas in this quarter would be a little more than 
2 to 1. 



28 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



Plaza Quarter 

The plaza quarter, as its name indicates, is a large open space, the 
floor of which is formed mainly by the contiguous roofs of the sev- 
eral kivas (K to O) that are sunk below it. The main entrance to the 
village opens into this plaza at its northwestern corner, and on the 
northern side it is continued into a court which connects with the 
main street or alley of the cliff village. From its position, relations, 
and other considerations, it is supposed that this quarter was an im- 
portant section of Cliff Palace and that here were held some of the 
large open-air gatherings of the inhabitants of the place; here also 
no doubt were celebrated the sacred dances which we have every 
reason to believe were at times performed by the former inhabitants. 
The roof levels of kivas H and I did not contribute to the size of the 
main plaza, but show good evidence of later construction. Judging 
from the number of fireplaces in this quarter there is reason to be- 
lieve that much cooking was done in this open space, in addition to 
its use for ceremonial or other gatherings of the inhabitants. 

Old Quarter 

The section of Cliff Palace that has been designated the old quarter 
(pis. 14, 15) lies between a line drawn from the main entrance of the 
ruin to the rear of the cave and the extreme northern end, culminating 
in a high castle-like cluster of rooms. It may well be called one of the 
most important sections of Cliff Palace, containing, as it does, the 
largest number of rooms, the most varied architecture, and the best 
masonry. Its protected situation under the roof of the cave is such 
that we may consider it and the adjoining plaza quarter the earliest 
settled sections of the village. It contains all varieties of inclosures 
known in cliff-dwellings : kivas of two types, round rooms, rec- 
tangular rooms, an alley or a street, and a court. The floor of the 
cave on which the rooms are built is broadest at this point, which 
is one of the best protected sites and the least accessible to enemies in 
the whole building. It may be theoretically supposed that originally 
the kiva quarter was an annex of this section and that some of the 
kivas in this quarter may also have been owned and used by the clans 
which founded Cliff Palace. The old quarter is divided into two 
parts, a northern and a southern, the former being arbitrarily desig- 
nated the Speaker-chief's House. The " street " running approxi- 
mately north and south bisects the old quarter, making a front and 
a rear section. 

Northern Quarter 

This quarter (pi. 16) of Cliff Palace extends from the high rocks 
on which the Speaker-chief's House is perched, in a westerly direction, 
ending with a milling room and adjacent inclosures 92 to 94, situated 



fewkbs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 29 

west of kiva V. It includes three kivas ; two, U and V, being situated 
on the fourth terrace; and one, T, on the first terrace. Kivas U and 
V are built on top of large rocks, the floor of kiva V being excavated 
in solid rock. Much of this quarter, especially the Avestern end, is 
• under the sky, and consequently without the protection of the cave 
roof, on which account it was considerably destroyed by rain water 
flowing over the canyon rim. The walls of this quarter, especially 
where it joins the old quarter, exhibit fine masftnry, suggesting that 
it was inhabited by important clans. 

Masonry 

The Avails of Cliff Palace present the finest masonry known to any 
cliff-dwelling and among the best stonework in prehistoric ruins 
north of Mexico. A majority of the stones used in the construction 
were well dressed before laying and smoothed after they were set in 
the wall. The joints are often broken, but it is rare to find intersect- 
ing walls or corners bonded. Stones of approximately the same size 
are employed, thereby making the courses, as a rule, level. Although 
commonly the foundations are composed of the largest stones, this 
is not an invariable rule, often larger stones being laid above 
smaller ones; the latter, even when used for foundations, are some- 
times set on edge. As a rule, the Avails are not plumb or straight. 
The custom of laying stone foundations on wooden beams is shown in 
several instances, especially in cases where it was necessary to bridge 
the intervals betAveen projecting rocks. The arch was unknoAvn to 
the masons of Cliff Palace; there are no pillars to support floors or 
roofs as in Spruce-tree House. It is not rare, especially in the kivas, 
to find instances of double or reenforced walls which may or may not 
be bonded by connecting stones. 

The masonry of the kivas as a rule is superior to that of the secular 
rooms. The mortar employed in the construction is hard; the joints 
are chinked Avith spalls, fragments of pottery, or clay balls. The 
fact that much more mortar than Avas necessary Avas employed resulted 
in weakening the walls. Several Avails were laid without mortar ; in 
some of these the joints were pointed, in others not.* The ancient 
builders did not always seek solid bases for foundations, but built 
their Avails in several instances on ashes or sand, evidently not 
knowing when the foundations were laid that other stories would 
later be constructed upon them. 

In several sections of the ruin there are evidences that old walls, 
apparently of houses formerly used, served in part as walls for neAV 
buildings. There are also several instances of secondary construction 



a Fragments of mortar from the walls and floors, ground to powder, were used in the 
repair work. 



30 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Lbull. 51 



in which old entrances are walled up or even buried and old passage- 
ways covered with new structures. Similar reconstruction is common 
in Hopi pueblos, where it has led to enlargement of rooms and other 
variations in form. Among the several examples of such secondary 
building in Cliff Palace may be mentioned a long wall, evidently 
the front of a large building, which serves as a rear wall of several 
rooms arranged side by side. The obvious explanation of such a con- 
dition is that the walls of the small rooms are of later construction. 

As above mentioned the foundations of many walls are of larger 
stones, and the masonry here is coarser than higher up, which has 
led some authors to ascribe this fact as due to two epochs of construc- 
tion. But this conclusion does not appear to be wholly justifiable, 
although there is evidence in many places that there has been re- 
building over old walls and consequent modification in new con- 
structions, by which older walls have ceased to be necessary, a con- 
dition not unlike that existing in several of the Hopi pueblos. In 
this category may be included the several doors and windows that 
have been filled in with new masonry or even concealed by new walls. 
From the fragile character of certain foundations of high walls it 
would appear that it was not the intention, when they were laid, to 
erect on them walls more than one story high; the construction of 
higher stories upon them was an afterthought. Evidences occur of 
repair of breaks in the walls and corners by the aboriginal occupants, 
one of the most apparent of which appears at the end of the court 
in the southern wall of room 59. 

Adobe Bricks 

The walls, as a rule, were made of stone ; indeed it is unusual to find 
adobe walls in cliff -dwellings of the Mesa Verde. In prehistoric 
buildings in our Southwest, evidences that the ancients made adobe 
bricks, sun-dried before laying, are very rare. Bricks made of clay 
are set in the walls of the Speaker-chief's House and were found in 
the fallen debris at its base. These bricks were made cubical in form 
before laying, but there is nothing to prove that they were molded 
in forms or frames, nor do they have a core of straw as in the case 
of the adobes used in the construction of Inscription House in the 
Navaho National Monument, Arizona." The use af adobes in the con- 
struction of cliff-house walls has not been previously mentioned, 
although we find references to " lumps of clay " in the earliest his- 
toric times among Pueblos. Thus the inhabitants of Tiguex, accord- 
ing to Castaneda, were acquainted with adobes. " They collect;' says 
this author, "great heaps of thyme and rushes and set them on fire; 
when the mass is reduced to ashes and charcoal they cast a great 



° See Bulletin 50, Bureau of American Ethnology. 



fewkbs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



31 



quantity of earth and water upon it and mix the whole together. 
They knead this stuff into round lumps, which they learn to dry and 
use instead of stone." 

Attention may be called to the fact that not only the adobes found 
at Cliff Palace but also the mortar used in the construction of the 
walls contain ashes and sometimes even small fragments of charcoal. 
Clay or adobe plastered on osiers woven between upright sticks, so 
common in the walls of cliff-dwellings in Canyon de Chelly and in 
the ruins in the Navaho Monument, while not unknown in the Mesa 
Verde, is an exceptional method of construction and was not observed 
at Cliff Palace. The survival a of this method of building a wall, if 
survival it be, may be seen in the deflector of kiva K. 

Plastering 

The walls of a number of rooms were coated with a layer of plas- 
tering of sand or clay. This was found on the outside of some walls, 
where it is generally worn, but it is best preserved on the interior 
surfaces. Perhaps the most striking examples of plastering on ex- 
terior walls occurs on the Speaker-chief's House, where the smooth- 
ness of the finish is notewortlry. 

From impressions of hands and fingers on this plastering it is 
evident that it was laid on not with trowels but with the hands, and 
as the impressions of hands are small the plasterers were probably 
women or children. In several instances where the plastering is 
broken several successive layers are seen, often in different colors, 
sometimes separated by a thin black layer deposited by smoke. The 
color of the plastering varies considerably, sometimes showing red, 
often yellow or white, depending on the different colored sand or mud 
employed. 6 The plastering not only varies in color but also in thick- 
ness and in finish. In the most protected rooms of the cave practi- 
cally all the superficial plastering still remains on both the interior 
and the exterior of the walls, but for the greater part it has been 
washed from the surfaces and out of thejoints in the outer buildings. 
The mortar was evidently rubbed smooth with the hands, aided, per- 
haps, with flat stones. The exterior of one or two rooms shows several 
coats of plaster, and different parts of the same walls are of different 

0 In at least one of the Oraibi kivas the plastering of the wall is laid on sticks 
that form a kind of lathing. Whether this is a survival of an older method of con- 
struction or is traceable to European influence has not been determined, but it is believed 
to be a survival of prehistoric wall construction. 

b The red color is derived from the red soil common everywhere on the mesa. Vellow 
was obtained from disintegrated rock, and white is a marl which is found at various 
places. The mortar used by the ancient masons became harder, almbst cement, when 
made of marl mixed with adobe. 



32 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



colors. Indistinct figures are scratched on several walls, but the 
majority of these are too obscure to be traced or deciphered. The 
plastering on the exterior and the interior of the same wall is often 
of different color. 

Paintings and Rock Markings 

Figures are painted on the white plastering of the third story of 
room 11 and on the lower border of the banquette of kiva I, the 
former being the most elaborate mural paintings known in cliff- 
dwellings, showing several symbols which are reproduced on pot- 
tery. A reversed symbolic rain-cloud figure, painted white, occurs on 
the exterior of the low ledge house. 0 Mural paintings of unusual 
form are found on the under side of the projecting rock forming part 
of the floor of room 3, and there are scratches on the plastering of the 
wall of kiva K. The latter figures were intended to represent animals, 
heads of grotesque beings, possibly birds, and terraced designs sym- 
bolic of rain clouds. As one or more of these symbols occur on pottery 
fragments, there appears no doubt that both were made by the same 
people. Among rock markings may also be mentioned shallow, con- 
cave grooves made by rubbing harder stones, which can be seen on the 
cliffs in front of rooms 92 and 93 and in the court west of room 51. 

Among the figures painted on whitewashed walls of room 11 may 
be mentioned triangles, parallel reel lines with dots, and a square 
figure, in red, crossed by zigzags, recalling the designs on old Navaho 
blankets. 

The parallel lines are placed vertically and are not unlike, save in 
color, those which the Hopi make with prayer meal on the walls of 
their kivas, in certain ceremonies. But it is to be noted that the Hopi 
markings are made horizontally instead of vertically, as at Cliff 
Palace. The dots represented on the sides of some of these parallel 
lines (room 11) are similar to those appearing on straight lines or 
triangles in the decoration of Mesa Verde pottery. The triangular 
figures still used by the Hopi in decorating the margins of dados in 
their houses also occur on some of the Cliff-Palace walls, but are 
placed in a reversed position. They are said to represent a butterfly, 
a rain cloud, or a sex symbol. It is interesting to note in passing that 
two or more triangles placed one above another appear constantly in 
the same position in Moorish tile and stucco decorations, but this, of 
course, is only a coincidence, as there is no evidence of a cultural 
connection. 

"This figure resembles closely that on the outside walls of the third story of room 11 of 
Spruce-tree House. (See pis. 4, 5, 6, Bulletin hi, Bureau of American Ethnology.) 



Itewxes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VP]RDE NATIONAL PARK 



33 



Refuse Heaps 

Almost every Mesa Verde cliff-dwelling has an unoccupied space 
back of the rooms, a as in the rear of rooms 28 to 40, which served as 
a depository for all kinds of rubbish. Here the inhabitants of Cliff 
Palace also deposited certain of their dead, which became mummified 
on account of the dryness of the air in the cave. 

There is also a vacant space between the rear of the Speaker-chief's 
House and the cave wall, but this space was almost entirely free of 
ref ise. The amount of debris in the refuse heaps back of the so-called 
^a quarter lends weight to other evidence that this is one of the 
olciest sections of Cliff Palace. 

The accumulation of debris was so deep in these places, and the 
difficulties of removal so great, that it was not attempted. It had all 
been dug over by relic seekers who are said to have found many 
specimens therein. b 

Secular Rooms 

The majority of the rooms in Cliff Palace were devoted to secular 
purposes. These are of several types, and differ in form, in position, 
and in function. Their form is either circular or rectangular, or 
some modification of these two. As a rule, the secular rooms lie deep 
under the cliffs, several extending as far back as the rear of the cave. 
The front of Cliff Palace shows at least two tiers or terraces of 
secular rooms, the roof of the lower one being level with that of the 
floor of the tier above. The front walls of secular rooms lower than 
the fourth terrace are as a rule destroyed, but the lateral walls are 
evident, especially in the tower quarter. The passage from one of 
these terraces to the room above was made by means of ladders or 
by stone steps along the corners. 

The following classification of secular rooms, based on their func- 
tion, may be noted: (1) Living rooms; (2) milling rooms; (3) storage 
rooms; (4) rooms of unknown function; 0 (5) towers; (6) round 

a Isolated cliff-dwellings are scattered throughout the Southwest, but there are several 
areas, as the Mesa Verde, in which they are concentrated. Among these clusters may 
be mentioned the Canyon de Chelly, the Navaho National Monument, the Red Rocks area, 
and that of the upper Gila. One characteristic feature in which the cliff-dwellings of 
the Mesa Verde differ from some others is the independence of all of the upright walls 
from support of the sides of the cliffs. In the cliff-houses of the Navaho Monument a 
large majority of the houses have the rear wall of the cave as a wall of the building ; 
a few of the houses in Cliff Palace have the same, but the largest number are entirely 
free from the cliff. This separation on all sides is due largely to the geological structure 
of the rear o,f the cavern in which the cliff-house stands. 

6 Workmen could operate in these parts only by tying sponges over their nostrils, so 
difficult was it to breathe on account of the fine dust. 

c Possibly some of these may have been used sometimes for ceremonial purposes, or 
rather for the less important rites. 

44726°— Bull. 51—11 3 



34 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



rooms. It is difficult to distinguish in some instances to which of 
the above classes some of the rooms belong. The secular houses were 
probably owned by the oldest women of the clan, and the kivas were 
the property of the men of their respective clans, but courts, plazas, 
and pasageways were common property. 

The masonry a of all secular rooms is practically identical and 
as a rule is inferior to that of kivas, their walls varying in width 
and having a uniform thickness from foundation to top. There are 
instances where the lower part projects somewhat beyond the upper, 
from which it is separated by a ledge, but this feature is not common. 
Minor features of architecture, as flbors and roofs, doors and win- 
dows, fireplaces, banks, and cubby-holes, some or all of which may be 
absent, vary in form and in distribution according to the purpose for 
which the room was intended. The few timbers that remain show 
that the beams of the houses were probably cut with stone hatchets 
aided by the use of fire. The labor of hauling these timbers and of 
stripping them of their branches must have been great, considering 
the rude appliances at hand. It would seem that the cliff-dwellers 
were not ignorant of the use of the wedge with which to split logs, 
since the surfaces of split sticks are always more or less fibrous, never 
smooth, as would be expected if metal implements had been used. 
All transportation Avas manual, without the assistance of beasts of 
burden or of any but the rudest mechanical contrivances. 

Doors and Windows 

There is difficulty in distinguishing doorways from windows in 
cliff-dwellings, on which account they are here treated together. 
Both are simple openings in the walls, the former as a rule being 
larger than the latter. As door openings are regularly situated high 
above the floor, there may have been ladders by which the doorways 
of the second and third stories were reached. The rooms may have 
been entered by means of balconies, evidences of which still remain. 
No instance of a hatchway in the roof is now recognizable, although 
the absence of side entrances in several rooms implies that there were 
roof entrances, several good examples of which occur at Spruce-tree 
House. 

Doorways of Cliff Palace have two forms, rectangular and 
T-shaped, the latter generally opening on the second story or in 
such a position that they were approached by ladders or notched logs. 
The theory that these doorways were constructed larger at the top 
than at the bottom so that persons with packs on their backs might 

a Probably both men and women of one clan worked together in the construction of 
houses, the men being the masons, the women the plasterers. Each clan built its 
own rooms, and there were no differentiated groups of mechanics in the community. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 14 





PHOTOGRAPHED BY R. G. FULLER 



OLD QUARTER 



FEWKESj 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



35 



pass through them more readily is not wholly satisfactory, nor docs 
the theory that the notch at the lower rim served to keep the ladder 
from slipping wholly commend itself. No satisfactory explanation of 
the form of the T-shaped doorway hao been yet determined. Generally 
the tops of both doorways and windows arc narrower than the bot- 
toms, the sides being slightly inclined ; but the lower part is rarely 
narrower than the top. Sills sometimes project slightly, and evi- 
dences occur that the sides as well as the upper part of the window 
and doorway were made of adobe, now no longer in place. The 
jambs also were probably of clay, and the doors, made of slabs of 
stone, neatly fitted the orifices. 

The prevailing storms in winter at Cliff Palace sweep up the can- 
yon from the southwest, but there does not seem to have been a sys- 
tematic effort to avoid the cold by placing doors and windows on the 
opposite side of the building; the openings, for instance, of the 
Speaker-chief's House face this direction and are open to storms of 
snow and rain. Many of the openings never had doors and windows, 
but were probably closed with sticks tied together, or with matting. a 
Certain windows were half closed, probably to temper the winter 
blasts. The sills of doors were commonly placed a foot or more 
above the floor ; & transoms above the door opening and peepholes at 
the side are not common in Cliff Palace. In some cases a stepping- 
stone projects from the wall below the door opening to facilitate 
entrance ; in others a foot hole is found in the same relative place. 

As the jambs, sills, and lintels were built hard and fast in the mor- 
tar, evidently both door openings and windows were constructed 
when the corresponding wall was built. The jambs in some instances 
and the lintels in others are of split sticks, the surfaces of which are 
fibrous and were evidently not split by means of iron implements. 
There is evidence that the size of the door openings was sometimes re- 
duced by a ridge of mortar which was arched above, as at Spruce-tree 
House, the intention being to make in this way a jamb to hold in place 
the stone door. There are no round windows of large size, but both 
doors and windows are quadrilateral in shape; the small circular 
openings in some of the walls may have served for lookouts. 

Floors and Roofs 

Not a single entire roof remained in Cliff Palace, and only one or 
two rooms retained remnants of rafters. It would seem, however, 
from the position of the holes in the walls into which the rafters 

a Some of the doorways were filled with rude masonry ; evidently the rooms were thus 
closed in some instances before the buildings were deserted. 

6 The placing of the sill at a level with the floor is a modern innovation at Walpi. The 
oldest houses still have it elevated, as in Cliff Palace. In some of the cliff-houses of the 
Navaho Monument sills and floor levels are continuous. 



36 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



once extended that they were constructed like those of Spruce-tree 
House, a good example of which is shown in plate 9 of the report on 
that ruin. The floors seem to have been formed of clay hardened by 
tramping', but there is no evidence of paving with flat stones. The 
hardened adobe is sometimes laid on sticks without bark and stamped 
down. Although no instance of extensive rock cutting of the floor 
was observed in secular rooms, this is a common feature of kiva 
floors. Floors were generally level, but in some instances, when rock 
was encountered, the surface was raised in part above the other 
level. The majority of the floors had been dug into for buried speci- 
mens before the repair work was begun, but here and there fragments 
of floors were still intact, showing their former level. Banquettes or 
ledges around the walls are rare. In a few instances the unplastered 
roof of the cave served as the roof of the highest rooms. 

Fireplaces 

Many fireplaces still remain in rooms, but the majority are found 
in convenient corners of the plazas. a The most common situation is 
in an angle formed by two walls, in which case the fire-pit is generally 
rimmed with a slightly elevated rounded ridge of adobe. In room 
84 there is a fireplace in the middle of the floor. At one side of this 
depression there extends a supplementary groove in the floor, rimmed 
with stone, the use of which is not known. Although fireplaces are 
ordinarily half round, a square one occurs in the northwestern 
corner of room 81. All the fireplaces contained wood ashes, some- 
times packed hard ; but no cinders, large fragments of charcoal, or 
coal ashes were evident. The sides of the walls above the fireplaces 
are generally blackened with smoke. 

The fire-holes of the kivas, being specially constructed, are different 
in shape from those in secular houses. While the cooking fire-pits 
are generally shallow, kiva fire-holes a foot deep are not excep- 
tional, and several are much deeper. The fire was kindled in the 
kiva not so much for heating the room as for lighting it, there be- 
ing no windows for that purpose. Certain kinds of fuel were prob- 
ably prescribed, but logs were not burned in kivas on account of the 
heat. No evidences of smoke-hoods or chimneys have been found in 
any of the Cliff Palace rooms. The walls of many kivas showed 
blackening by soot or smoke. 

Living Rooms 

It is difficult to distinguish rooms in which the inhabitants lived 
from others used by them for storage and other purposes, since 
most of their work, as cooking, pottery making, and like domestic 



a Smoke on the walls of certain second and third stories shows that fireplaces were 
not restricted to the ground floor. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 15 




PHOTOGRAPHED BY R. G. FULLER 

SPEAKER-CHIEF'S HOUSE, AFTER REPAIRING 



FEW KES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



37 



operations, was conducted either on the house-tops or in the plazas. 
Under living rooms are included the women's rooms, a or those in 
which centered the family life ; and, in a general way, we may suppose 
the large rooms and those with banquettes were sleeping rooms. 
The popular misconception that the cliff-dwellers were of small 
stature has undoubtedly arisen from the diminutive size of all the 
secular rooms, but it must be remembered that the life of the cliff- 
dwellers was really an out-of-door one, the roof of the cave affording 
the necessary protection. 

Milling Rooms 

There are several rooms in Cliff Palace which appear to have been 
given up solely to the operation of grinding corn. The mills are 
box-like structures, constructed of slabs of stone set on edge, each con- 
taining a slanting stone called a metate, from which the mill is called 
by the Hopi the metataki, or " metate house." The following descrip- 
tion of a metataki in pueblos seen by Castaneda in 1540 applies, in a 
general way, to the small milling troughs in Cliff Palace : 

One room is appointed for culinary purposes, another for the grinding of 
corn; the latter is isolated [not so in Cliff Palace] and contains an oven and 
three stones [one, two, three, or four in Cliff Palace], cemented finely together. 
Three women sit [kneel] before these stones; the first crushes the corn, the 
second grinds it, and the third reduces it quite to a powder. 

In grinding corn, which was generally the work of the girls or 
young women, the grinder knelt before the metataki and used a flat 
stone, which was rubbed back and forth on the metate. The corn 
meal thus ground fell into a squarish depression, made of smooth 
stones, at the lower end of the metate. Commonly the corners of this 
receptacle for the meal that had been ground were filled in with clay, 
and on each side of the metate were inserted fragments of pottery, 
which rounded the corners and made it easier to brush the meal 
into a heap. In room 92, where there are four metates, occupying 
almost the whole milling room, there are upright stones on the side 
of the wall, back of the place where the women knelt, against which 
they braced their feet. 

Most of the grinding boxes were destroyed, but those in the Speaker- 
chief's house and others west of kiva V, especially the latter, were 
still in good condition, the metates being in place. Evidences of 
former metatakis were apparent in the floor of several other rooms, as 
in a room back of kiva K. It is evident from the number of metates 
found in Cliff Palace that several milling rooms, not now recogniza- 
ble, formerly existed, and it is probable that every large clan had its 



a Among the Hopi the oldest woman, as a clan representative, owns the living rooms, but 
kivas are the property of the men, the kiva chief of certain fraternities being the direct 
descendant of the clan chief of the ceremony when limited to his clan. 



38 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



own milling room, with one or more metatakis, according to neces- 
sity. Although many metates without metatakis occur in Cliff 
Palace, that in itself is not evidence that they were moved from 
place to place by the inhabitants. These milling rooms were ap- 
parently roofed, low, and one-storied, possibly in some instances open 
on top, but generally had a small peephole or window for the entrance 
of light or for permitting the grinders to see passers-by. 

Granaries 

Under the general name of granaries are included storage rooms, 
some of which are situated below living rooms. 0 Here corn for con- 
sumption was stacked, and if we may follow Hopi customs in our 
interpretation of cliff-dwellers' habits, the people of Cliff Palace no 
doubt had a supply sufficient to prevent famine by tiding over a 
failure of crops for two or more years. Many of these chambers 
Avere without doorways or windows; they were not limited to storage 
of corn, but served for the preservation of any food products or valu- 
able cult paraphernalia. Each clan no doubt observed more or less 
secrecy in the amount of corn it kept for future use, and on that ac- 
count the storage rooms were, ordinarily hidden from view. 

The droppings of chipmunks and other rodents show that these 
commensals were numerous, and their presence made necessary the 
building of storage rooms in such manner that they would be proof 
against the ravages of such animals. The three cists constructed of 
stone slabs placed vertically, situated back of the Speaker-chief's 
House, sometimes called " eagle houses," were probably storage bins ; 
in support of this hypothesis may be mentioned the fact that the cobs, 
tassels, and leaves of corn are said to have been abundant in them 
when Cliff Palace was first visited by white men. 

Although eagle bones are found in the refuse in the unoccupied 
part of the cave back of the houses, their abundance does not necessa- 
rily prove that eagles were confined in them by the inhabitants of 
Cliff Palace. Perhaps the eagle nests in the canyon were owned by 
different clans and were visited yearly or whenever feathers were 
needed, and the dead eagles were probably buried ceremonially in 
these places, which therefore may be called eagle cemeteries, as among 
the Hopi. & 

Crematories 

As is well known to students of the Southwest, the tribes of 
Indians dwelling along the lower Colorado river disposed of their 
dead by cremation, and evidences of burning the dead are found 

a Genetically the room for storage of property was of earliest construction. This 
custom, which was necessary among agriculturists whose food supply was bulky, may 
have led to the choice of caves, natural or artificial, for habitation. 

6 See Property Rights in Eagles, American Anthropologist, vol. il, pp. 690-707, 1907. 



FBWKBS] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



39 



among all the ruins along the Gila and Salt rivers in southern 
Arizona. The custom was also practiced in the San Pedro and Salt 
Ei^:er valleys, and along other tributaries of the Gila river. Casta- 
heda (1510) says that the inhabitants of Cibola, identified with Zuni, 
burned their dead, but no indication of this practice is now found 
among existing Pueblos. The ancient Pueblo inhabitants of the 
Little Colorado, so far as known, did not burn their dead, and no 
record has been made of the practice among their descendants, the 
Hopi and Zuni. 

In his excellent work on the ruins of the Mesa Verde, Baron 
Nordenskiold speaks of calcined human bones being found in a stone 
cist at Step House, and Mr. Wetherill is referred to as having ob- 
served evidence of cremation elsewhere among the Mesa Verde cliff- 
dwellings. There can be no doubt from the observations made in 
the refuse heaps at Cliff Palace that the inhabitants of this village 
not only burned their dead but there was a special room in the 
depths of the cave which was set aside for that purpose. 0 One 
of these rooms, situated at the northern end of the refuse heap, was 
excavated in the progress of the work and found to contain bushels 
of very fine phosphate ashes, mixed with fragments of bones, some 
of which are well enough preserved to enable their identification as 
human. Accompanying these calcined bones were various mortuary 
objects not unlike those occurring in graves where the dead were not 
cremated. The existence of great quantities of ashes, largely con- 
taining phosphates, apparently derived from the burned bones, form- 
ing much of the refuse, and the densely smoke-blackened roof of the 
cave above them, are interpreted to indicate that the dead were cre- 
mated in the cave back of the houses. 

In addition to these burning places, or crematories, in the rear of the 
buildings of Cliff Palace, there is good evidence of the same practice 
on the mesa top. Here and there, especially in the neighborhood of 
the clearings where the cliff-dwellers formerly had their farms, are 
round stone inclosures, oftentimes several feet deep, in which occur 
great quantities of bone ashes, fragments of pottery, and some stone 
objects. The surface of the stones composing these inclosures shows 
the marks of intense fire, which, taken in connection with the existence 
of fragments of human bones more or less burned, indicate that the 
dead were cremated in these inclosures. It is not clear, however, 
•that the dead were not interred before cremation, and there is reason 
for believing that the bodies were dried before they were committed 
to the flames. The mortuary offerings, especially pottery, seem to 

a While only one place where bodies were burned was found in Cliff Palace, several 
such places were found on top of the mesa. Evidences of similar inclosures occur at 
Spruce-tree House and at Step House. 



40 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



have been placed in the burning places after the heat had subsided, 
for beautiful jars showing no action of fire were found in some of 
these inclosures. The existence of cremation among the cliff-dwellers 
is offered as an explanation of the great scarcity of skeletons in their 
neighborhood. When it is remembered that Cliff Palace must have 
had a population of several hundred, judging from the number of 
the buildings, and was inhabited for several generations, it other- 
wise would be strange that so few skeletons were found. It would 
appear that the chiefs or the priestly class were buried either in the 
ground or in the floors of the rooms, which were afterward sealed, 
whereas the bodies of the poorer class, or the people generally, were 
cremated. The former existence of Pueblo peoples who buried their 
dead in the region between the Gila valley and Mesa Verde where 
the dead were cremated is a significant fact, but further observations 
are necessary before it can be interpreted. It may be that in ancient 
times all the sedentary tribes practiced cremation, and that the region 
in question was settled after this custom had been abandoned. 

Ledge Rooms 

In a shallow crevice in the roof of the cave on a higher level 
than the roofs of the tallest houses there is a long wall, the front 
of inclosures that may be called " ledge rooms." 0 Some of these 
rooms have plastered walls, others are roughly laid; the latter form 
one side of. a court and served to shield those passing from one room 
to another. On this outer wall, about midway, there is painted in 
white an inverted terrace figure, which may represent a rain cloud. 
Attention should be called to the resemblance in form and position 
of this figure to that on an outside wall overlooking plaza C of 
Spruce-tree House. This series of ledge rooms was probably entered 
from the roof of a building in front, and the opening or doorway 
above room 66 served as such an entrance, according to several stock- 
men who visited Cliff Palace in earlier days. 

ENUMERATION OF THE ROOMS IN CLIFF PALACE 

Secular Rooms 

The rooms in Cliff Palace, now numbered from 1 to 94, include all 
those on the ground floor, but do not embrace the second, third, and 
fourth stories nor the elevated ledge rooms secluded in the crevices 
of the cave roof at a high level. Their classification by function 



« This type of building is believed to be the oldest in those sections of the Southwest 
where cliff habitations occur. 



FEW K ES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



41 



already having been considered, a brief enumeration by form and 
other characters will be given. 

Eoom 1, situated at the extreme southern end, presents no striking 
features except that one of its entrances is by stairs through the floor 
from kiva A. Its western and northern walls are of masonry; the 
remaining sides are formed by the vertical cliff. 

The walls of room 2 are constructed of masonry on the northern, 
western, and southern sides; the eastern side is the cliff face. As 
the floor of this room is made of hardened clay laid on small sticks, 
it was at first supposed that a human burial was concealed beneath, 
but excavation showed no signs of an interment. 

Eoom 3 (pi. 17) is a square inclosure between walls of other rooms. 
A portion of its floor is level with that of rooms 1 and 2, but a pro- 
jecting rock forms an elevated bench on the eastern side. On the 
underside of this rock there are pictographs, apparently aboriginal, 
one of which has a well-known terrace form, recalling the outlines 
of a T-shaped doorway and the white figures on the outer wall of 
the ledge room above mentioned. 

Room 4 is three stories high, without openings into adjoining 
rooms or exterior entrances. Its western corner is rounded below 
and angular above. 

Eoom 5 was apparently two stories high, with a fireplace in its 
southeastern corner. The foundation rests on a large rock. The 
arrangement of post holes in the south and west walls of this dwell- 
ing is exceptional, and their purpose enigmatical. There is a passage 
from room 5 to the neighboring plaza, which is occupied by kiva D. 

Room 6 is a small rectangular chamber, about 2 feet square and 7 
feet high ; it has an entrance on the western side into room 7, and, as 
it utilizes the walls of the adjacent rooms, it was doubtless built sub- 
sequent to them. Evidences of rebuilding or secondary construc- 
tion of walls on old foundations are so numerous in this section of the 
ruin that this may be the oldest part of Cliff Palace. 

Rooms 7, 8, and 9 are outside rooms, the western walls of which 
are more or less broken, while the front is entirely destroyed. It ap- 
pears that their connected roofs once formed a terrace overlooking 
kiva D on the west. There are doorways in walls of one of these 
rooms, but entrance may have been gained by means of hatchways. 
It was approached from plaza B by the aid of ladders or stone steps. 

Room 11, which may be called the square tower, is the only four- 
story building standing in Cliff Palace, its walls reaching from the 
floor to the roof of the cave. When work began on this building the 
whole northwestern angle had fallen, and the remaining walls were 
tottering. To prevent total destruction, the entire corner was built 
up from a foundation laid on the floor level of the neighboring kiva. 
A small entrance to the ground floor, or the lowest of the four rooms. 



42 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 51 



is from a banquette (10) on the western side, where there is a pas- 
sageway from this lower story of room 11 to room 12, situated in its 
rear. Room 12 has a good floor, and room 11 a fireplace in the south- 
western corner of the lowest room of the square tower. Almost all 
the beams of the higher rooms of this tower had been taken out, 
leaving nothing but the holes in the walls to indicate the former ex- 
istence of floors. The beams now connecting the walls were placed 
there by our workmen to serve as staging and for tying the sides to- 
gether. The second and third stories of the square tower are also 
without floors. Their inner walls are plastered a reddish color, in 
places whitewashed, and the third wall is decorated with interesting- 
paintings. In the western wall of the second story was a small 
window, and portions of a large T-shaped doorway still show on the 
northern wall of the third story. Split sticks support the section 
of wall from the top of this doorway to the roof of the cave. From 
the arrangement of its rear walls it would appear that the whole of 
this tower was built subsequently to the rooms back of it, which 
extend on each side, north and south. The repair of a doorway of 
the northern wall was difficult, the foundation walls of the eastern 
and northern corners of the tower being slabs of stone set on edge, 
quite inadequate to support the lofty wall above. This insufficient 
foundation leads to the belief that when the base of the square tower 
was constructed there was no thought of erecting upon it the four 
stories that we now find. (PI. 12, 13<2, 14<z.) 

Some of the rooms of the square tower bear evidence of having 
been living rooms, and possibly the approaches to the upper chambers 
were by ladders from the outside ; otherwise the T-shaped doorway on 
the northern side, above the painted room, remains unexplained. 

Room 12, situated east of the square tower, has no characteristic 
features, being more a passageway than a room, opening at one end 
into room 13 and connecting with kiva D at the other end. 

Room 13 likewise presents no distinctive features; its rear wall is 
considerably blackened by smoke, and it has a large square window 
opening into room 12. 

A large part of the front walls of rooms 14, 16, and 24 has fallen, 
having been destroyed by falling water. To obviate future destruc- 
tion, the southwestern corner of room 16 was repaired with cement, 
thus preventing further harm from dripping water. Rooms 16 and 
24 evidently formed a front terrace, perhaps one story high, then- 
rear wall being the front wall of rooms IT and 18. 

Rooms 17 and 18 are of two stories; both are square. The upper 
part of its walls shows that a portion of room 18 was formerly 
one story high and that the walls were erected before those of room 
17. A coping of masonry around three walls is a feature of room 18, 
the construction of which is superior to that of room 17. This room 



PEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



43 



has a large front window and two smaller openings higher up in 
the second story of the western wall. The combined front walls 
of rooms 17 and 18 may be ranked among the finest examples of 
masonry in Cliff Palace. The large embrasures made in this wall 
by vandals were repaired. 

Rooms 19 and 20 also present fine examples of masonry and were 
evidently constructed before rooms 21, 22, and 23. The inner walls 
of room 19 were plastered ; the outer wall was left rough. Room 20 
shows crude masonry ; its rear wall is the vertical cliff, and the inner 
surfaces of the three remaining walls of the upper story were plas- 
tered, and painted with yellow sand or pigment. Apparently the 
lower room was used as a granary, having no entrance, except possibly 
through a hatchway in its roof, which forms the floor of the room 
above. The presence of sticks projecting from the walls of this 
room adds weight to the conclusion that it was used for storage. 
There is no indication of a fireplace. 

Room 22 has a stepping-stone, which may have facilitated entrance, 
projecting from the wall under an opening that probably served as 
a doorway. 

Room 23 has a fireplace in one corner, and rooms 25, 26, and 27, 
which are situated in a row, have for their rear wall the vertical face 
of the cliff. Although these rooms are only one story high, the roof of 
the cave slopes down low enough in the rear to form their roofs. The 
outer walls were plastered, and each room was entered by a separate 
doorway. Although their side walls were somewhat destroyed, they 
appear not to have been intercommunicating. It is, in fact, rare 
to find a doorway from one room into another on the same level, or 
suites of rooms communicating with one another, but chambers one 
above another are generally provided with hatchways. 

Room 28 is a two-story structure of excellent masonry, with an 
entrance on its southern side and a window frame of stone. Its 
second story formerly opened on the western side into room 29. Not 
much now remains of the plastering that once covered the inner walls 
of room 28, but the interior walls of room 29 still show well-preserved 
plaster. Although the latter room has excellent masonry, its south- 
ern wall, or that facing kiva J, is entirely destroyed. The floor was 
so well preserved that but little work was required to put it in good 
condition. 

Rooms 30 to 33 are represented almost entirely by the side walls, the 
front walls being more or less destroyed. Their floors lie on the same 
level as those of the second terrace, and their roofs may have been 
continuous with the third terrace. There is indication of a room 
(unnumbered) in the southwestern corner of plaza J, and another, too 
mutilated to be described, on tha second terrace below it. 



44 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 51 



Room 34 is irregularly rectangular in shape; its floor is on the 
level of the roof of kiva H. It has good masonry and a smoothed 
stone sill with a groove cut in the upper surface for the slab that 
formed the door. Its interior walls show evidences of plastering. 

Room 35, situated on the same level as the kiva roof, has no win- 
dow, but there is an opening directly into kiva H. Its roof is a con- 
tinuation of that of the kiva, and has the old rafters, some still in 
place, supporting a few of the flat stones which formed the upper 
walls. As this chamber opens directly into the kiva, we may regard 
it as a repository for kiva paraphernalia ; a the Hopi designate a simi- 
lar chamber Katcinakihu, " Katcina house." On the roof of this 
room the writer set in place a smooth, ovoid stone with flat base, 
artificially worked. Possibly this stone was formerly used as an idol. 

In Hano, a pueblo on the East mesa of the Hopi, masks are kept in 
a special room back of a living room, a custom common to all the 
Hopi. There is no evidence that the Cliff Palace people performed 
masked dances. 

The most picturesque building of Cliff Palace is the round tower, 
room 36, perched on a high rock overlooking kivas G and H. From 
it the observer may have a fine view of the entire ruin and the can- 
yon, especially the view down the latter, which is unsurpassed. This 
tower is not unlike other towers in the San Juan and Mesa Verde 
regions, one of the most perfect of which is that in Navaho canyon, 
repeatedly figured. This prominent tower is built of worked stones 
laid in reddish mortar, and apparently was plastered both inside and 
outside. It is two stories high, but is without a floor in the upper 
story, or a roof. The theory in certain quarters that this round tower 
formerly extended to the roof of the cave is not accepted by the 
author, who believes that it was formerly only a few feet higher than 
at present. The break in the upper wall adds much to its picturesque 
character, which is likewise increased by its association with neighbor- 
ing buildings. The round tower has a doorway in its lower story, 
and above is another smaller opening, possibly a window. Several 
small peepholes are present on the western side. The sides of this 
structure are symmetrical, its walls slanting gradually inward from 
the base upward, and its vertical lines curving slightly on the 
western side. (PL 4<2, 11.) 

Room 37 is a well-preserved room with a metataki, or grinding bin, 
in the middle.. 

While rooms 38 and 39 appear to be living rooms, they present no 
special peculiarities. The northern wall of room 39 was wholly un- 

a The Mongkiva at Walpi has such a chamber which is closed by a door and is opened 
only when paraphernalia for certain ceremonies are desired. In the Warrior House at 
Walpi there is a similar chamber, ordinarily closely sealed, in which the fetishes of the 
Warrior Society are kept. Masked dancers among the Pueblos are called Katcinas, and 
the masks they wear would naturally be kept in a house (MJiu) called " Katcinakihu." 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



45 



dermined and tottering when the work of repair was commenced, 
so that its foundations had to be built up from the floor of kiva M. 
To make this difficult repair work effective it was necessary to enlarge 
the base of the wall, making the side of kiva M curve slightly inward 
and thereby insuring a good foundation. 

The walls of rooms 41 and 42 are Avell preserved; the top of the 
cave served as the roof. These rooms were entered from the plaza 
containing kiva M. In room 42 a stepping-stone is set in the outer 
wall below the doorway, the object being to facilitate entrance. It 
is said that this room, the roof of which shows signs of smoke, was 
occupied b} r campers while engaged in rifling the ruin of its contents. 

The cluster of rooms numbered 43 to 45 have well-constructed 
walls, but they have been considerably mutilated. Pegs from which, 
no doubt, objects were formerly hung, project from the smoothly 
plastered interior walls of one of these rooms. 

Rooms 47 and 48 show the holes of floor joists, so placed as to indi- 
cate two stories. These rooms form the southern side of the court, 
which extends from the main plaza of the settlement to the round 
rooms at the northern extremity. In front of room 50 there is a low 
platform from which one steps into the room through an entrance 
situated about midway of its length. 

Room 51 has a very well preserved fireplace in the northwestern 
corner and a doorway about midway in the northern wall. Its well- 
plastered walls show impressions of the hands and fingers of the 
plasterers. 

The eastern side of the " street " a is bordered by rooms 60 to 63, 
inclusive, which open into it. In the wall of the last room (61) to 
the south there is a small peephole that enabled the owners to see 
from within the room anyone entering the street from the court. 
Room 59, probably the largest angular room in Cliff Palace, is with- 
out an entrance. Its high walls form a part of the northern and 
eastern ends of the court and almost the whole western side of the 
street. A large embrasure in its southern wall had been repaired by 
the ancient masons before Cliff Palace was deserted. Xorth of 
room 59 remains of the foundations of rooms (not numbered on 
the plan) were found, and it may be possible that at this point there 
was a small open space, without a kiva ; if so, it would have been 
exceptional in Cliff Palace. 

Rooms 66 and 68 are round rooms, not kivas, although possibly 
ceremonial in character. From the roof of room 66, the walls of 
which are now lower than formerly, it was possible to pass on a level 
into one of the series of ledge rooms previously described. The floor 
of room 68 is exceptional in being lower than that of the cave outside, 



• A passage or inclosure surrounded by high walls is called MsomU by the Hopi. 



46 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



so that on entering it one descends by a step or two. Room 67 
appears to have been more a passageway (kisombi) than a room, a 
step from it leading down to the level of the triangular plaza in front 
of the Speaker-chief's House, south of room TO. 

Room 70 is a milling room, with two well-preserved metatakis in 
one corner, each with a set of metates. In the wall above these meal- 
ing troughs there is a small window through which the women en- 
gaged in grinding corn could see the passers through the court east 
of this room. The opposite corner is occupied by a fireplace, and the 
adjacent wall is pierced by a doorway with elevated threshold, 
through which one passed from the milling room to the broad 
Speaker-chief's platform south of rooms 71 and 72. 

The inclosed space west of rooms 71 and 73 is separated from the 
rear of the cave by a high wall which shuts off entrance on this side. 
The series of rooms numbered 71 to 74, and the two rooms west of 
these, form, with the banquette and the neighboring plaza, what is 
here arbitrarily designated the Speaker-chief's House, the walls of 
which consist of some of the finest masonry in Cliff Palace. It is 
protected on the western side by a high, w T ell-plastered wall extending 
southward from the corner of room 72, so placed as to shield the 
plaza from storms from this side. The banquette south of rooms 72 
and 73 is also finely plastered, and is approached from the plaza by a 
single step. This banquette probably was designed for the use of the 
Speaker-chief, but a similar structure on the eastern side of the 
plaza quarter served another purpose. 

The masonry, the doors and windows, and other structural features 
of the Speaker-chief's House are the best in Cliff Palace. Lintels, 
jambs, and door and window sills are of smooth- dressed stones and 
project beyond the wall. The rear rooms of this cluster extend to 
the roof of the cave, being three stories high, while those in front 
are two stories in height. The line of holes shown in plate 15 indi- 
cates the former position of rafters, but all signs of woodwork have 
disappeared from this section of the ruin. 

On the western side of the Speaker-chief's House are two rooms, 79 
and 80, likewise well built. The former has a banquette extending 
across the eastern side, and the latter is triangular in shape, with the 
exterior side rounded. The foundations of these rooms rest upon a 
large rock that has settled and cracked, the crack extending vertically 
into the walls, showing that it has developed since the wall was 
constructed. 

The inclosures 76 to 78, extending to the cave roof, are more like 
granaries for the storage of corn. They are built of flat stone slabs 
placed on edge, and rest on bowlders that have fallen from the cave 
roof, which is here lower than in the middle part of the cavern. Of 
these inclosures, 78 is the best preserved, all holes in its angles being 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PAEK 



47 



skillfully closed with adobe mortar, so that even now if the door were 
replaced it would be almost rat proof. The door opening is square, 
and is situated at the western side. There is no adequate evidence 
that these rooms served as turkey houses, as some have interpreted 
them. 

The rear walls of rooms 89 and 90 are well preserved, but those in 
front have been completely destroyed. The former has a banquette 
like that of the Speaker-chief's House. The walls of rooms situated 
north and east of kiva U, now reduced in height, formerly extended 
to the roof of the cave, which is here somewhat lower than in the 
middle of the cavern. The existence of these former walls is indi- 
cated by light bands on the smoke-covered surface of the cave roof, 
and fragments of clay still adhering to the side of the cliff show that 
the walls here were two and three stories high. 

In rooms 84, 85, and 86 the builder took advantage of the cliff for 
cear walls. The middle of the floor of 84 has a depression lined with 
vertical slabs of stone, evidently a fireplace, as it contained a quantity 
of wood ashes. In the floor on the eastern side of this fireplace there 
is a short trench also lined with stone and containing wood ashes, the 
relation of which to the other inclosure is unknown. It appears that 
this exceptional structure Avas not used in the same way as the fire- 
places so constantly met with in other rooms, but that it might have 
been used for baking paper-bread, called piki by the Hopi. In a 
corner of room 91 there is another depression, half under the floor, 
covered with a flat stone, that appears quite likely to have been used 
for this purpose. Unlike the fireplaces sunken in the floor, the one 
in room 84 is partially or wholly above the floor, its confining stones 
being several inches above the floor level. 

Eoom 92 is the best example of a milling room in Cliff Palace. It 
has four grinding bins, or metatakis, arranged side by side, with 
all the parts entire and in working condition. When excavation was 
begun in this part of the ruin these structures were wholly concealed 
under fallen rocks. As streams of water from a vertical cleft in the 
cliff poured down upon them after exposure during periods of rain, 
it was necessary to construct a roof to protect them. a The discovery 
of this and of other grinding rooms shows that the cliff-house 
metatakis are the same in structure as those in the Hopi pueblos. 
In an inclosure south of these metatakis was found a granary. 
Fragments of walls projecting from the cliff west of room 93 show 
the former existence of rooms in this section, but as their front walls 
have been obliterated by the downpour of water their form is obscure. 



a On the top of the rock that forms the foundation of the walls of these rooms, and 
south of them, are hollows or grooves where the metates were ground, and shallow pits 
used in some prehistoric game. There are similar pits in some of the kiva floors. 



48 



BUREAU. OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



KlVAS 

There are in Cliff Palace 23 ceremonial rooms that may be called 
kivas. a These consist of two types: (1) generally circular or cylin- 
drical subterranean rooms, with pilasters to support the roof, and 
with fireplace, deflector, and ventilator. (2) Circular or rectangu- 
lar rooms with rounded corners, without pilasters, fireplace, or de- 
flector. In the first group may be placed provisionally a subtype 
(kiva M, for example), without pilasters but with a single large 
banquette. As this subtype is the dominant one in the western part 
of the San Juan drainage, it may be necessary later to regard it as 
a type. As a rule rooms of the second type are not subterranean, 
but are commonly surrounded by high Avails, being entered by a 
doorway at one side. There are 20 rooms pertaining to the first 
type and three to the second type in Cliff Palace. & 

The majority of the kivas are situated in front of the secular build- 
ings, but several are in the rear of the cave, with high rooms in 
front of them. The largest cluster of kivas on the cave floor lies in 
the so-called plaza quarter, which takes its name from the open space 
occupied by the kivas in that section. The rooms on the terraces, 
especially those near the southern end of the ruin, w r ere covered with 
fallen rocks and other debris when the excavation and repair work 
began. The walls of most of the kivas, whether in front or in the rear, 
were greatly dilapidated and in all instances it was necessary to 
rebuild them to the level of the plazas in which the kivas are situated. 

Following comparisons with modern pueblos, there is every reason 
to suppose that the kivas preserve the oldest types of buildings of 
the cliff-dweller culture, and it is believed that the form of these 
archaic structures is a survival of antecedent conditions. They be- 
longed to the men of different clans, as in a measure is the case among 
the Hopi at the present day, with whom every kiva is spoken of as that 
of a certain man who is a clan chief. The male and female members 
of every Hopi clan have affiliation with certain kivas (a survival of 
archaic conditions), and in certain clan gatherings, as the dramatic 
exhibition which occurs in March, the celebration takes place in their 
respective kivas. 

a The word Mva, now universally employed in place of the Spanish designation " es- 
tufa " to designate a ceremonial room of the Pueblos, is derived from the Hopi language. 
The designation is archaic, the element M being both Pima and Hopi for " house." It has 
been sought to connect this word with a part of the human body, and esoterically the kiva 
represents one of the underworlds or womb of the earth from which the races of man 
were born. It is highly appropriate that ancient ceremonies should take place in a kiva, 
the symbolic representation of an underworld, for many of the ceremonies are said to 
have been practiced while man still lived within the Earth Mother. The word Mva is 
restricted to subterranean chambers, rectangular or circular, in which secret ceremonies 
are or were held, and the term Jcihu is suggested for ceremonial rooms above ground. 
The five kivas at Walpi are examples of the true kiva, while the Flute chamber may be 
called a kihu. 

b The so-called " warrior- room " in Spruce-tree House belongs to the second type. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 21 




STONE HATCHETS 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



49 



As the kiva is the men's room, and as religious exercises are largely 
controlled by men, such ceremonies occur in kivas, which are prac- 
tically the ceremonial rooms. 0 

KIVAS OF THE FIRST TYPE 

All kivas of the first type are constructed on the same general plan, 
the different parts being somewhat modified by surrounding condi- 
tions. While their general form is circular or cylindrical, some are 
square with rounded angles, others oblong, and others more or less 
heart-shaped. Their diameter and height vary according to circum- 
stances, but this type is always subterranean when possible, even 
though excavation in the rock may be necessary. 

The walls of the kivas are sometimes double, and the masonry is 
generally Avell constructed. The walls show evidences of plastering, 
which is decorated in some instances with paintings or incised fig- 
ures. The number of pilasters is commonly 6, but 4 and 8 are also 
evident; rarely, as in kiva M (the subtype), all are missing. Be- 
tween these pilasters are the so-called banquettes, one of which is 
usually larger than the others. The banquettes are generally built 
3 or 4 feet in height, consequently they could scarcely have been 
intended for seats. 

The pilasters are commonly rectangular, sometimes square, the 
size being about uniform from base upward. In rare instances a 
pilaster has a cubby-hole & in one side, AYTiere circumstances require 
the ventilator penetrates the rear portion of the pilaster, but the flue 
never enters the side of the kiva under a pilaster. 

The pilasters, which are almost universal in kivas of the first type, 
as has been shown in the description and illustrations of the eight 
kivas of Spruce-tree House, served as supports for the roof beams. 
These rafters of pine rested upon and served to support other logs 
laid one over another, so that finally the roof opening was covered. 
Across the middle of the walls, at the top, two long parallel logs 
were placed, in order to add stability to the roof structure. These 
beams were set far enough apart to allow a hatch midway between 
their ends. Avhicli served the purpose of an entrance and also per- 
mitted the escape of smoke from the fire directly below. 

Over the framework of logs were laid small sticks, filling the in- 
terstices, and above these was spread a layer of cedar bark ; the whole 
was then covered with clay, thus bringing the upper surface of the 
roof to the level of the adjacent plaza. Whether the kiva walls 
projected above the plaza and roof level is unknown, but possi- 

a In certain ceremonies of Hopi women's societies the kiva has also come to be a 
meeting place for these sororities and where they erect their altars. 

6 These small holes, generally square, are usually found in the wall below the banquette. 



44728°— Bull. 51—11 4 



50 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



bly they did, and there may have been a slight elevation of the 
hatchway, as in the Hopi kivas. It is commonly believed that the 
kiva roof was level with the surrounding plaza and that the entrance 
was through a hatchway, but no depression or other sign of a ladder 
or of its resting place on the kiva floor has yet been found in any of 
the Mesa Verde ruins. 

The floors of the kivas are commonly of hardened adobe; unlike 
those of the Hopi kivas they are never paved with stones, but the 
natural rock often serves for that purpose. It is not rare to find the 
surface of solid rock that forms the kiva floor cut down a few feet 
to a lower level. Although generally smooth, when the floor is the 
natural rock there are sometimes found in it small, cup-like, artificial 
depressions similar to those in the horizontal surfaces of the cliff or 
in slabs of detached rock. 

The fire-pit, which is found in all kivas of the first type,® is a cir- 
cular depression situated slightly to one side of the middle of the 
room. While generally lined with adobe, slabs of stone sometimes 
form its border, and it is also to be noted that one or two of these 
small stones sometimes project above the floor level. The fire-hole 
is sometimes deep, and is generally filled with wood ashes, indicating 
long use. 

Every kiva of the first type has a lateral passageway for the ad- 
mission of air, opening into the chamber on the floor level, generally 
under the large banquette. This passage, or tunnel, here designated 
a flue, communicates either directly with the outside or turns upward 
at a right angle and forms a small vertical ventilator which opens at 
the level of the plaza. Between the entrance into the flue from the 
kiva and the fire-hole there rises from the floor a device called the de- 
flector (sometimes called an altar), the object of which was to pre- 
vent flames and smoke being drawn into the ventilator, or to evenly 
circulate the inflowing fresh air in the chamber. This deflector, may 
be (1) a low stone wall, free on both ends; (2) a curved wall con- 
nected with the kiva wall on each side with orifices to allow the pas- 
sage of air ; (3) a stone slab in the kiva floor; (4) a bank, free at each 
end, supported by upright stakes between which are woven twigs, the 
whole being plastered with clay. & 

The supposed functions of the flue, the vertical passage, and the 
ventilator have been discussed by several archeologists. The uses to 
which the flue has been ascribed are as follows: (1) a chimney, (2) a 

a The fire in these rooms was more for light than for heat, for when roofed a large fire 
would nave produced so much smoke and heat that the occupants would be driven out. 
The character of the ashes indicates that logs were not used as firewood, but that the 
prescribed kiva fuel was, as at Walpi, small twigs or brush. No evidence of lamps has 
been found in cliff -dwellings, the lamp-shaped pottery objects having been used for pur- 
poses other than illumination. 

6 Cosmos Mindeleff quotes from Nordenskiold a description of a Mesa Verde kiva, the 
deflector of which was made in the same way. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 22 




STONE OBJECTS 

a Pounding stone b Projectile point c Cover for vase d Flat stone slab 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 51 

ceremonial opening, (3) an entrance, (4) a ventilator. There is no 
sign of smoke on the interior of the vertical passage, which, being too 
small to admit a person, would seem to prove the first and third 
theories untenable. In the Navaho National Monument, where there 
are square rooms, or kihus, with banks similar to the deflectors of the 
circular kivas, a door takes the place of the flue and the vertical pas- 
sage, and affords the only means for admitting fresh air to the room. 
Although it may have originated as a simple entrance to the room, it 
became so modified that it could no longer have served that purpose, 
ceremonially or otherwise. 

The position of the entrance to the Cliff Palace kiva is yet to be 
definitely determined. Analogy, together with the structure of the 
roof, would indicate that it was by means of a hatchway, but no re- 
mains of a ladder were found, and no indication in the floor where a 
ladder formerly rested is visible. It may be that the large banquette 
indicates the position of the hatchways 

The subterranean passageway under the flue and beneath the floor 
of kiva V should not be overlooked in a study of the origin and func- 
tion of the ventilator. This structure is without apparent connection 
with the ventilator, and yet it is so carefully constructed under it 
that it may have had some relation, a knowledge of which will even- 
tually enlighten us regarding the meaning of both structures. 

The kivas of the Mesa Verde are much smaller than those of Walpi 
and other Hopi pueblos, one of them being barely 9 feet in diameter 
and the largest measuring not more than 19 feet, whereas the chief 
kiva at Walpi is 25 feet long by 15 feet wide. Evidently kivas of 
such diminutive size as those found at Cliff Palace could accommo- 
date only a few at a time, and it is probable that they were not 
occupied by fraternities of priests but by a few chiefs ; indeed, the re- 
ligious fraternity, as we understand its composition in modern 
pueblos, had in all probability not yet been developed. Nevertheless 
the smallest kiva in Cliff Palace is as large as the room in Walpi in 
which the Sun priests, mainly of one clan, celebrate their rites. 

KIVA A 

Kiva A (pi. IT) is the most southerly kiva of Cliff Palace, the first 
of the series excavated in the talus, its roof -having been on the level 
of the cave floor, or the fourth terrace. The walls of this kiva re- 
quired little repair. Its height from the floor to the top of the walls 
is 8 feet 6 inches, and from the floor to the top of the pilasters 7 feet ; 
the height of the banquette is 3 feet 6 inches. The interior diameter 
is 11 feet. There are six pilasters, with an average breadth of 20 
inches; the distance between them averages 4 feet 6 inches. 



a On this supposition the large banquette may have been the forerunner of the specta- 
tor's section in the modern rectangular Hopi kivas, of which it is a modification. 



52 



BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



The opening into the ventilator is situated in the southwestern 
wall ; its height is 2 feet 4 inches, the breadth, at the base, 14 inches, con- 
tracted to 11 inches at the top. The deflector, which is broken, is a 
thin slab of stone. The distance from the flue opening to the deflector 
is 2 feet 6 inches, and from the deflector to the round fire-hole 8 
inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 1 foot 8 inches, its depth 2 
feet. Its western side is lined with small stones set on edge. 

There were possibly 4 niches in the side wall of the banquette, 3 
of them on the east, measuring respectively 16 by 20 by 12 inches, 9 
by 9 by 12 inches, and 3 by 3 by 5 inches, and the remaining one situ- 
ated north by east from the middle of the kiva and measuring 6 by 4 
by 8 inches.® 

There is a subterranean passageway (pi. IT, h), 6 feet 6 inches 
long, from this kiva into room 1, and also a tunnel (pi. 17, a). (5 feet 
in length, between kivas A and B. The former has stone steps and 
rises above the banquette ; its width averages 18 inches. 

KIVA B 

Kiva B adjoins kiva A, and is the second of the terraced rooms, its 
roof being originally on the same level as the former. It is circular 
in shape, and the height from the floor to the top of the room is 9 feet 
6 inches. The height of the top of the pilasters from the floor is 7 
feet, and that of the banquette 3 feet 6 inches. 

The inner diameter of the kiva is 13 feet 6 inches. There are 6 
pilasters, averaging 2 feet in width. The position of the ventilator 
opening is south by west ; its depth 4 feet, and height 2 feet 6 inches. 
The breadth of this opening at the top (it narrows somewhat at the 
base) is 18 inches. 

The deflector 6 is a slab of stone about 3 feet 10 inches wide. The 
distance from the deflector to the kiva wall is 2 feet 6 inches, and 
from the deflector to the fire-hole 14 inches. The diameter of the 
fire-hole measures 2 feet, and its depth 9 inches. The distance from 
the ceremonial opening, or sipapu, to the fire-hole is 4 feet. The 
diameter of the sipapu is 4 inches and its depth the same. There are 
5 niches in the kiva wall. 

The masonry of this kiva is fairly good, its western wall naturally 
being the most destroyed. The banquette over the tunnel into 
kiva A is broader than any of the others. On the eastern side the 
kiva walls are apparently double. 

a The measurements of the kivas here given were determined by Mr. R. G. Fuller, who 
served as voluntary assistant during the summer. 

6 With the exception of that in kiva Q there has not been found in any deflector a large 
stone (" fire stone ") forming the cap or top. In deflectors formed of a slab of stone such 
a " fire stone " on top would be impossible. 



BUREAU OF AMERI 



ICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 23 




a Pottery fragment with bird-claw decoration in relief b, d Food bowls c Incised stone 
e Decorated fragment of earthenware / Cover for vase 



FEWKES] 



ANTTQUTTTES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



53 



KIVA C 

This kiva is circular ; it measures 13 feet in diameter, and 5 feet 6 
inches from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The height of the 
banquette is 3 feet. The number of pilasters is 6; their average 
breadth is 2 feet. 

The deflector is a stone wall laid in mortar; its width is 3 feet 
0 inches; the thickness, 8 inches. From the flue to the deflector is 
2 feet 4 inches, and from the same to the fire-hole, 8 inches. The 
diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet, its depth 1 foot. The sipapu is 

2 feet from the fire-hole; it is 6 inches deep and 4 inches in diameter. 
The masonry of this kiva was in very poor condition, most of the 

upper part being wholly broken down. There are 4 niches in the 
walls. The surface is thickly plastered and shows a deposit of smoke. 
The pilasters are of uniform size. The deep banquette is situated 
above the flue back of the deflector. 

KIVA D 

Kiva D is square, with rounded corners ; it is 13 feet in diameter ; 
its walls are 10 feet high and measure 7 feet from the floor to the 
top of the pilasters. The height of the banquette is 4 feet. The 
number of pilasters is 6; their average distance apart is 4 feet 6 
inches, and their width 2 feet. The eastern wall of this kiva is the 
side of the cave, and the whole was inclosed by high walls. On the 
southern side of the kiva is a passageway. The walls of the kiva and 
the cave roof above it are blackened with smoke. There are two 
deep banquettes. 

The flue opens in the western wall of the kiva ; its height is 2 feet, 
and its width at the top is 13 inches. The distance from the flue 
to the deflector is 2 feet 6 inches; from the deflector to the fire-hole, 
13 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet and its depth 1 
foot. The distance from the fire-hole to the sipapu is 2 feet 2 inches ; 
the diameter of the latter is 3 inches. This kiva has 5 finely made 
rectangular niches in the walls. The walls are well plastered and 
were painted }^ellow. Wherever the masonry is visible it is found 
inferior to none except possibly that of kiva Q. a 

KIVA E 

Kiva E is square, with rounded corners; it measures 11 feet 6 inches 
in diameter, and is 9 feet 10 inches high. The elevation of the ban- 
quette is 4 feet, and of the pilasters 7 feet. The number of pilasters 
is 6. The flue opens on the western side. 

The deflector consists of a wall of stone, 2 feet high ; its width is 

3 feet 6 inches, the thickness 9 inches. The distance from the deflector 



* This kiva, which is one of the best in Cliff Palace, is illustrated by Nordenskiold. 



54 



BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



to the flue is 1 foot 10 inches, and from the fire-hole 3 inches. There 
are 4 mural niches. As the projecting rock on the eastern side 
interfered with the symmetry of this kiva, when constructed it was 
necessary to peck the rock away 8 inches deep over an area 10 feet 
square, thus exhibiting, next to the floor of kiva V, the most extensive 
piece of kiva stone-cutting in Cliff Palace. Although this kiva 
was generally in a fair state of preservation, it was necessary to 
rebuild much of the eastern wall. 

The fire-hole of this kiva is lined with a rude jar set with adobe 
mortar. No sipapu was discovered in the floor. Kiva E is one of 
the few kivas in Cliff Palace surrounded by the walls of rooms. As 
it is situated in the rear of the cave, projecting walls of the cliff 
were necessarily cut away to a considerable extent in order to ob- 
tain the form of room desired on the eastern side. This side of 
the kiva is blackened by smoke antedating the construction of the 
room. There is abundant evidence in this portion of the ruin of 
secondary construction of buildings on the same site. Several walls 
built upon others show that some rooms may have been abandoned 
and new ones added, an indication that this portion of the ruin is 
very old, perhaps having the oldest walls still standing. 

KIVA F 

Kiva F, situated on a lower terrace than the 'kivas already de- 
scribed, is square, with rounded corners, and is 9 feet high. The 
height of the pilasters is 6 feet 10 inches, and the top of the banquette 
is 4 feet 1 inch above the floor. The diameter of the kiva is 13 
feet. There are 6 pilasters; the distance between them averages 5 
feet ; their average width is 2 feet 4 inches. The deflector, a wall 
of masonry, is 3 feet wide and averages 9 inches in thickness. 

The deflector is 2 feet from the flue and 18 inches from the fire- 
hole, which is 2 feet in diameter and the same in depth. The distance 
from the fire-hole to the sipapu is 2 feet 4 inches. The diameter of 
the sipapu is 2^ inches, and its depth 5 inches. 

There are 3 mural niches, similar to those previously described. 
The roof of this kiva was of the same level as the floors of rooms 16 
and 24, the roofs of which overlooked the kiva situated in the 
terrace below. 

The walls of this kiva are black with smoke. The room is sur- 
rounded by a second wall, the interval between which and that of the 
kiva is filled with rubble. 

KIVA G 

This kiva may be called " heartshaped." Its height from the floor 
to the top of the roof is 9 feet, and it measures 6 feet from the floor to 
the top of the pilasters. The banquette is 4 feet high, and the inte- 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PAEK 



55 



rior diameter of the kiva is 12 feet. The numbers of pilasters is G; 
their average breadth is a little more than 2 feet, and the intervals 
between them averages 3 feet 6 inches. 

The deflector is a stone slab 3 feet wide and 2 feet high. The dis- 
tance from the flue to the deflector is 2 feet; from the deflector to 
the fire-hole 11 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet, its 
depth 18 inches. The sipapu is 2 feet 8 inches from the fire-hole ; its 
diameter is 2 inches, and its depth 4 inches. There are 4 mural 
niches. 

This kiva is situated in the terrace below that last mentioned, that is, 
in the second terrace, and was wholly buried when excavations began. 
The roofs of rooms 30 and 31 overlooked this kiva, their floors being 
on the same level as the kiva roof. 

KIVA H 

Kiva H (pi. 18) measures 8 feet from the floor to the top of the 
wall, and 6 feet from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The height 
of the banquette is 4 feet 6 inches. The diameter of the kiva is 11 
feet 6 inches. ' 

The deflector is a curved stone wall joining the kiva wall on each 
side of the flue.? It is built of stone, 7 feet 6 inches high, 10 inches 
wide, and 20 inches high. The deflector is 1 foot 6 inches from the 
flue and 15 inches from the fire-hole. The diameter of the fire-hole 
is 2 feet and its depth 1 foot. 

The sipapu is situated 2 feet from the fire-hole* it is 3 inches in 
diameter and 4 inches deep. 

There are 2 mural niches. Exceptional features of this kiva are the 
curved deflector and the opening into a small room at the northwestern 
corner. Instead of extending straight from the kiva to the vertical 
ventilator, the flue turns at a right angle midway in its course. The 
ventilator is built at one corner of the kiva wall. As this kiva lies 
deep below the base of the round tower, a fine view of these several 
characteristics may be obtained from that point. 

KIVA I 

When work began there was no indication of the walls of this 
kiva, except a fragment of one which at first was supposed to belong 
to a small secular room. The kiva had been filled with debris by 
those who had dug into the upper rooms, and a large hole 6 was 
broken through the high western wall of kiva L, through which to 
throw debris. The removal of this accumulation was a work of 

a A similar deflector is recorded by Mr. Morley as existing in the Cannonball ruin, and is 
figured by Nordenskiold from the Mesa Verde. 

6 This entrance in the wall appears in all photographs of this portion of Cliff Palace. 



56 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



considerable magnitude, and the repair of the kiva Avail was very 
difficult, as it was necessary to reconstruct the foundations that had 
been blasted away to make the opening above mentioned. 

When this debris was removed and the floor of the kiva was 
reached, it was found that its walls were much disintegrated, the 
component stones having practically turned into sand, necessitating 
the construction of buttresses to support them. The dimensions of 
kiva I are as follows : The height of the top of the wall from the floor 
is 8 feet, and that of the pilasters 6 feet 8 inches. The banquette 
rises 3 feet 8 inches above the floor. The interior diameter of the 
kiva is 10 feet 10 inches. The number of pedestals is 4, averaging 
4 feet in height. 

The flue is situated at the southwestern side. The distance from 
the flue to the deflector is 21 inches ; from the deflector to the fire-hole, 
2 inches. There are two mural niches, one at the northeast measuring 
13 by 11 by 8 inches, and one at the southeast measuring 13 by 11 by 7 
inches. A dado, painted red, surrounded the kiva, the color being 
most conspicuous, because best protected, in the mural niches, half 
of which are above, half below the upper margin of the dado. On 
this margin are traceable triangular figures like those on the painted 
wall of room 11. 

On the level of what was formerly the roof of this kiva was set into 
the roof a vase covered with a flat stone and containing desiccated 
bodies of lizards. 0 

KIVA J 

Kiva J is round; it is 14 feet in diameter and measures 8 feet 4 
inches from the floor to the top of the wall. The height from the 
floor to the top of one of the pilasters is 5 feet 10 inches. The ban- 
quette is 3 feet 2 inches high. The deep banquette, as' is usually the 
case, is above the flue, which opens in the southwestern wall. The 
number of pedestals is 6; their average breadth is 2 feet. The 
deflector consists of a stone wall rising 20 inches above the kiva floor. 
There are 7 mural niches. The kiva walls were thickly plastered 
with adobe, and show the action of smoke. 6 

The open space east of the kiva, formerly continuous with its roof, 
is somewhat larger than is usually the case, making this the largest 
plaza in Cliff Palace, except that of the plaza quarter. There are 
remnants of rooms southwest of the kiva. 

a For a note on a similar vase and its use, see remarks on kiva S. It is probable that 
these dried lizards were regarded by the Cliff Palace priests as very potent " medicine." 

h From all appearances the kivas we're plastered from time to time after the walls had 
become blackened. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 25 







fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF M*ESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



57 



K1VA K 

Kiva K a is round in form, and its height from the floor to the 
roof is 7 feet. The height of the pilasters is 5 feet, and that of 
the banquette 3 feet. The diameter of the kiva is 9 feet 6 inches. 
The pilasters are 5 in number, and average about 20 inches in width. 
The deflector of this kiva is exceptional, being the only known in- 
stance where this structure is constructed of upright stakes bound 
with twigs or cedar bark and plastered with adobe. 6 The distance 
from the flue to the deflector is 18 inches, and from the deflector to 
the fire-hole, 8 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 20 inches, the 
depth 8 inches. The walls of this smallest of the kivas are formed 
partly of masonry, but in places the chamber is excavated out of 
solid rock, the ancient builders having pecked away projections in 
order to produce the desired form. 

The marks of smoke are clearly visible, especially on the flue ; and 
on the surface of the eastern side are scratched several figures repre- 
senting birds and other animals. Eyelets of osiers set in the wall are 
also exceptional, and their use is problematical. 

KIVA L 

The height of kiva L is 7 feet 5 inches, that of the pilasters 5 feet 

4 inches, and of the banquette 3 feet 3 inches. The diameter is 12 feet 
2 inches. Number of pilasters 6. The flue opens on the western 
side ; its height is 2 feet. Only a single mural niche was recognizable. 

The walls of this kiva were very badly damaged, the whole of its 
front having fallen inward, covering the floor. The construction of 
the room demanded considerable rock cutting, especially on the east- 
ern side, to secure the requisite depth. Whatever masonry remained 
in position was, as a rule, good. Probably no kiva in Cliff Palace 
was more dilapidated when work began. It had been used as a 
dump by those who had mutilated the ruins, and a great opening had 
been torn in its western wall. Excavations showed that the floor had 
been wholly destroyed. 

KIVA N 

The height of kiva N is 7 feet 4 inches, and that of the pilasters 

5 feet 4 inches. The banquette is 3 feet high. The diameter of the 
kiva is 11 feet. There are 6 pilasters and 5 mural niches. 

This kiva was in bad condition when the work began, but it is 
now in good repair and exhibits interesting features. The deflector 
was wholly destroyed, and it was impossible to find the sipapu. 
There are evidences of considerable rock cutting on the northern 

a This kiva, one of the finest and in some features the most exceptional in Cliff Palace, 
is not indicated in Nordenskiold's plan. 

b Nordenskiold describes a ventilator constructed in the same way. 



58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 51 

side, and of a little on the eastern and southwestern sides. The 
kiva walls are blackened by smoke. 

KIVA P 

The height of kiva P is 8 feet, its diameter 11 feet 3 inches. The 
height from the floor to the top of a pilaster is 5 feet 10 inches, and 
to the top of the banquette 3 feet 4 inches. The number of pilasters 
is 6, and their average breadth about 20 inches. 

From the flue to the deflector the distance is 2 feet 8 inches, and the 
deflector is situated 6 inches from the fire-hole. There are 5 mural 
niches. 

The walls of this kiva are much blackened by smoke. The masonry 
is fair, but much broken on the northern and western sides. There is 
evidence that a considerable amount of rock has been pecked away on 
the northern side to the floor level. The kiva occupies almost the 
whole open space in which it is constructed, and the walls of neigh- 
boring buildings surround it on all sides, rising from the edge of the 
kiva. In order to secure a level foundation, parallel beams to support 
the floor were laid from a projecting rock to a masonry wall. The 
ends of these logs project above the path that leads to the main 
entrance. 

KIVA Q 

This kiva (pi. 19) is round in shape and measures 8 feet 6 inches 
from the floor to the top of the wall. There were formerly eight 
pilasters, which averaged 18 inches in breadth. The height of the 
pilasters is 6 feet, and of the top of the banquette 3 feet 3 inches. 
The diameter of the kiva is 13 feet 8 inches. 

The fire-hole is 22 inches from the deflector ; the thickness of the 
latter is 10 inches, and its width 3 feet 3 inches. There are four mural 
niches, all in fine condition. Although the masonry of this kiva is 
the finest in Cliff Palace, its whole western end is destroyed. The 
floor west of the deflector has a slightly convex surface.® 

No ceremonial opening, or sipapu, such as occurs in several other 
Cliff Palace kivas, was found in kiva Q. At the place where this 
feature usually appears the floor was broken, but as several of the 
Cliff Palace kivas have no specialized sipapus it is possible that this 
device may be looked for in another opening in the floor. There 
are no sipapus in the Hano kivas of the East Mesa of the Hopi, and 
the priests of that pueblo assert that the Tewa have no special hole 
in the kiva floor to represent this ceremonial opening. Apparently 
the Pueblos of the Rio Grande are like the Tewa of Hano in this 
respect. All the kivas of Spruce-tree House and a number of those 



° In ceremonial rooms of ruins in the Navaho National Monument this curve is repre- 
sented by a raised step. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 26 




b Dipper-bowl and corrugated vase 
POTTERY 



FBWKBS] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 59 

in Cliff Palace have this ceremonial opening, thus following the 
Hopi rather than the Tewa custom. Whether the fireplace was used 
by those who performed rites in kiva Q as a symbolic opening into 
or from the " underworld " is unknown to the writer. The sub- 
terranean passage in kiva V leading to the fire-hole, but not enter- 
ing it, is interesting in this particular. Kiva V, however, as pointed 
out, has in addition to the fire-hole a fine pottery-lined sipapu corre- 
sponding to the sipapus in Hopi kivas, but made in the solid rock 
floor. 

KIVA S 

This kiva is square, with rounded corners. Its height is 8 feet, and 
the height of one of the pilasters above the floor 5 feet 10 inches. 
The banquettes are 3 feet 3 inches above the floor. The diameter of 
the kiva is 10 feet 4 inches. 

The number of pilasters is 6; their average breadth is 20 inches. 
The distance from flue to deflector, which is a slab of stone, is 3 feet 

2 inches ; the height of the deflector is 1 foot 7 inches and its width 

3 feet. 

From the deflector to the fire-hole the distance is 7 inches. The 
diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet, its depth 9 inches. There are 2 
mural niches. The large banquette is 3 feet 6 inches broad. The 
shaft of the flue, after passing 18 inches under the kiva wall, turns 
southeastward 4 feet 4 inches and then takes a vertical course. The 
masonry of kiva S is fairly good. A jar is set into one of the ban- 
quettes, and was perhaps formerly used for containing sacred meal. a 
This receptacle was left as found, and a slab of stone placed slant- 
ingly above it to shield it from falling stones. Under the huge rock 
above it there are light masonry walls outlining diminutive rooms 
used possibly for storage but not for habitation. 

KIVA T 

This kiva stands on an elevated rock, and has double walls, the 
intervals between the wall of the kiva and the outside walls being 
filled with rubble. 

The height of kiva T is 7 feet 6 inches, that of one of the pilasters 
6 feet 6 inches. The banquette is 3 feet 9 inches above the floor. 
The diameter of the kiva is 10 feet 5 inches. There were probably 6 

a Among the Hopi at the present day certain fetishes, as the effigies of the Great 
Plumed Serpent, are regarded as so sacred that when not in use they are kept in jars 
set in a hanquette, the surface of which is level with the neck of the jar. These 
receptacles are closely sealed with a stone slab when the images are deposited in them. 
Possibly the jars set in the kiva banquettes of Cliff Palace may have been used for a 
similar purpose : i. e., were receptacles for fetishes held in such veneration that, as is 
the case with the Great Serpent effigies of the Hopi, one even touching them may, in the 
belief of the people, be afflicted with direful disorders. 



60 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



pilasters and 2 mural niches. Although the greater part of the walls 
of this kiva was destroyed, a deep banquette still remains above the 
air shaft. The floor has the same level as the second terrace, or one 
story above kiva S, the roof of which is consequently at the level of 
the floor of kiva T. 

Kiva T was in bad condition when work began, as part of its front 
wall had fallen and only the tops of the others were visible above the 
debris. Even the floor level was difficult to determine. 

KIVA u 

The form of kiva IT is round, and its height is 7 feet 6 inches. The 
height of one of the pilasters is 4 feet 11 inches, and that of the 
banquette 3 feet 4 inches. The diameter of the kiva is 12 feet. There 
are 5 pilasters. The fire-hole is 4 inches from the flue ; the diameter 
of the fire-hole is 20 inches, its depth 6 inches. There are G mural 
niches, so arranged that two large niches are situated above two 
small ones. The presence of but 5 pedestals is accounted for by the 
joining of 2 above the flue. Much rock-cutting was necessary in 
constructing this kiva, especially on the northern and southwestern 
sides. As the front wall of the kiva had fallen, it had to be practi- 
cally rebuilt. The foundations were unstable, apparently having 
been constructed on loose stones carelessly laid. 

KIVA v 

This kiva is round and measures 5 feet G inches from the floor to 
the top of one of the pilasters. The top of the banquette is 3 feet 4 
inches above the floor. The diameter of the kiva is 12 feet 8 inches. 
The number of pilasters is 6 and their average breadth 20 inches. 

The distance from the deflector to the line of the wall is 23 inches ; 
the height of the deflector is 22 inches, the thickness 9 inches, and the 
width 3 feet 2 inches. The fire-hole is 18 inches from the sipapii; 
the latter is 10 inches deep and 3 inches in diameter, and is lined with 
a pottery tube cemented in place. There are three mural niches. 

Kiva V is exceptional in the amount of rock-cutting that was nec- 
essary for lowering the floor to the desired level. Probably the 
greatest amount of stone-cutting was done in this kiva. 

There remains to be mentioned a unique tunnel which may eventu- 
ally throw some light on ceremonial openings in the kivas of cliff- 
dwellings. Just beneath the adobe floor, extending from a vertical 
flue outside the kiva to the fire-hole, which it does not, however, enter, 
there is a passage through which a small person may crawl. Exte- 
riorly this opens into a vertical flue which was broken down ; inside 
it ends bluntly at the fire-hole. About midway of its length there 
extends from it a lateral passageway, slightly curved, forming 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 27 




PITCH BALLS AND VASE 



FKWKES 1 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VEKDE NATIONAL PAKE 



61 



a well-worn doorway. This curved passage opens through the kiva 
floor by a manhole. The walls of these passages are constructed 
of good masonry. Their function is unknown, but as most structures 
connected with kivas are ceremonial, this may provisionally be called 
a ceremonial opening. 

It is evident that this ceremonial passage had nothing to do or at 
least had no connection with the ventilator and deflector of the kiva. 
The opening is situated under the floor, passing in its course be- 
neath the deflector, and its external opening is by a vertical passage 
outside the ventilator. It also differs from the ventilator in having 
a lateral branch likewise situated under the floor. Passing to kivas 
outside the Mesa Verde region, we find homologous passages recorded 
as present under the floor in Pueblo Bonito, a ruin on the Chaco, 
and in the kiva of a ruin not far from Chama, where the passage 
under the floor is excavated in solid rock. Evidently we have in this 
structure a ceremonial opening the true significance of which is yet 
to be determined. Is it connected with the Tewa concept that the 
fire-hole is a sipapu, or was it used in fire rites that were performed 
about the fireplace? These and other questions that might be pro- 
posed must remain unanswered until more is known of similar pas- 
sages in other cliff-dwelling kivas. 

A SUBTYPE OF KIVA (KIVA m) 

The method of roof construction, which is the main difference 
that distinguishes a kiva of the subtype from one of the first type, 
is due to the absence of pilasters. Kiva M of Cliff Palace may 
be assigned to this subtype, although many examples of it occur 
in ruins farther down the San Juan, as well as in the Navaho Na- 
tional Monument and in Canyon de Chelly. Kivas of the subtype 
are similar to those of the second type in that pilasters are absent, 
but they differ from them in the presence of a large banquette and 
in the subterranean position, which features also characterize the 
first type. The only circular kivas known to the ruins near the East 
Mesa of the Hopi of Arizona belong to the first type, two of which 
are found at Kukuchomo, the two ruins on the summit of the mesa 
above Sikyatki. 

The method of roofing a kiva of the subtype may be clearly 
observed in the kiva of Scaffold House in the Navaho National 
Monument. 0 The rafters here are parallel, and extend across the top. 
of the kiva, their ends resting on the woll. The middle beam, which 
is the largest, is flanked on each side by another. Upon these sup- 
porting beams are laid others at right angles, and on these were 
placed the brush, bark, and clay that covered the roof. Entrance 



° See Bulletin 50, Bureau of American Ethnology. 



62 



BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



was gained by means of a hatchway on one side of the roof near 
the large banquette, which occupies a position, as respects the en- 
trance and the place supposedly occupied by the ladder and the 
fire-pit, similar to the spectator's platform of a modern rectangular 
Hopi kiva, except that it is higher above the floor and is relatively 
smaller. If the banquettes were depressed and enlarged into a plat- 
form, the form of the kiva being changed from circular to rectangu- 
lar, thus modified the banquette would form a structure like the 
spectator's platform of a typical modern Hopi kiva. a 

Perhaps of all the ceremonial rooms repaired the walls of kiva M 
were in the most dangerous condition. The front of the northern 
wall of room 39 had been undermined and was without foundation, 
hanging without basal support except at the ends. A support was 
constructed under this hanging wall, and to give additional strength 
the foundations were rebuilt a little broader at the base than for- 
merly, causing the wall to bulge almost imperceptibly into the kiva. 
Although no pilasters were seen, the deep banquette on the north- 
western side places it among the kivas of the first type. 

KIVAS OF THE SECOND TYPE 

The architecture of the two kivas O and R are so different from 
those already considered that they are set apart from the others in 
a second type. The form and structure of kiva W indicate that 
this room also may be classed as of the same type. In the side canyon 
north of that in which Cliff Palace is situated, where water was 
obtained throughout the summer, there is another kiva, also supposed 
to belong to the second type. 6 

The main difference in construction between the two types of 
kivas is the absence of pilasters, which implies the absence of a 
roof in the second type. The suggestion that a kiva of the second 
type is simply an unfinished form of the first type has little to 
support it, but whether the architectural difference in the two 
types has any functional importance or meaning is unknown. It 
has been suggested that one type was used by the Winter, the other 
by the Summer people. 0 

a The two circular kivas of Kukuchomo, near Sikyatki, have this large banquette and 
in other respects resemble the ruins of Canyon de Chelly. Kukuchomo marks the site of 
a settlement of the Coyote clan of the Hopi in prehistoric times. 

6 As a huge rock had fallen from the roof of the cave in which this kiva lies, since it 
was first occupied, it would appear that the place was abandoned on that account. 

c Nordenskiold's description of this kiva has been quoted earlier in this paper. In the 
description of a ceremonial room of a somewhat similar or of the same type in Spruce- 
tree House the term " warrior room " is used ; there is nothing to warrant this designa- 
tion, however, and it would be better to consider it simply as a kiva of the second type. 



fbwkbs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 63 



KIVA O 

Kiva O is rounded below and square above, with a north-south 
diameter of 11 feet 10 inches, and an east- west diameter of 10 feet 6 
inches. The ventilator opens in the western wall. There are 2 mural 
niches. 

Both the plastered floor and the deflector are lacking, and there is 
no fire-hole nor sipapu. No roof or pilasters to support it were de- 
tected. It is difficult to measure the surrounding wall on account of 
its varying height. The masonry is good, but there are no signs on 
the walls that a fire had ever burned within the chamber. It would 
appear that this kiva was roofless, and that it had broad banquettes 
at the northern and southern sides. 

KIVA R 

In shape this kiva is oval below and square above, without pilasters 
or other evidences of a roof. There are no signs of a floor, a deflec- 
tor, or a fire-hole. The surrounding wall of the kiva is high ; appar- 
ently there was an entrance at the eastern side. Banquettes are 
present on the northern and southern ends, and a narrow ledge skirts 
the other two sides. 

There are 4 mural niches: (1) south by east, measuring 15 by 11 by 
13 inches; (1) north by east, measuring 11^ by 8 by 15 inches; (2) in 
the north wall, measuring 13 by 8 by 12 inches, and 12 by 8 by 13 
inches ; the latter three being placed in a row and separated by slabs 
of stone. In the south wall there is a tunnel terminating bluntly 
and bifurcated at the end. 

Although kiva R was regarded by Xordenskiold as furnishing 
evidence of a transition form connecting circular and rectangular 
kivas, it seems to the author a new type rather than a modification 
of the circular or the rectangular kivas. 

KIVA W 

Kiva W is not generally included among the Cliff Palace ceremonial 
rooms on account of its isolation from the houses, but there is no 
doubt that it should be so enumerated. It lies about 50 feet west of 
the end of the last room in the cliff-dwelling, and is not accom- 
panied with secular rooms. Although situated on the same level as 
the houses, its walls rise two tiers high, but no part of the inclosure 
is subterranean. 

From the height of the* walls it at first seemed as if in kiva W there 
were evidences of a room above. This condition would be contrary 
to the rule and, to the Hopi mind, ceremonially impossible; but if 
its upper walls are regarded as homogeneous with the high walls that 



64 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



surround kivas O and R, and we interpret this as an example of the 
second type of kiva, the anomaly is explained. 

Although this kiva is placed provisionally in the second type 
mainly because of these lofty side walls, on account of its isolation 
at the end of Cliff Palace several observers have not regarded it 
as belonging to the ruin. Neither Nordenskiold nor Morley and Kid- 
der included it in their ground plans, nor does Nordenskiold men- 
tion it in his enumeration of Cliff Palace kivas. 

As kiva W is almost Wholly unprotected by the cave roof, its walls 
have greatly suffered from the downpour of rains to which they 
are exposed. The masonry is fairly good. Evidently it was an im- 
portant building, and was isolated from other rooms possibly for some 
special purpose. As there are few or no walls of secular rooms near 
it, one may believe that it was resorted to by the villagers on special 
occasions and did not belong to any one clan. 

MINOR ANTIQUITIES 

In the preceding pages have been described the major antiquities, 
such as walls and those permanent objects which could not be removed 
from the places where they were constructed without more or less 
harm. There remain to be considered the minor antiquities, or the 
smaller objects which are movable and of a more perishable nature, 
especially if left in the places where they were found. It was mainly 
in search of such objects that much of the mutilation of Cliff Palace 
was done. 

It was not expected that excavations would yield any considerable 
number of specimens, since for years Cliff Palace had been dug 
over in search of them, and many hundreds of objects had already 
been found and carried away to be sold either to museums or to indi- 
viduals. Notwithstanding these unfavorable conditions, the collec- 
tion of objects, now deposited in the National Museum, is sufficient 
to afford some idea of the culture of the Cliff Palace people. 

Among the objects that may be mentioned in the category of 
minor antiquities are pottery, basketry, implements of stone, bone, 
and wood, fabrics of various kinds, ornaments, fetishes, and the like — 
all those objects commonly called artifacts that make up collections 
from cliff-dwellings generally. 

The excavations at Cliff Palace have revealed no specimens strik- 
ingly different from those already described as from Spruce-tree 
House. We would expect some variation in the symbols on pottery 
from the two ruins, but the differences are not conspicuous in the few 
specimens that have been compared. Nor is there any peculiarity in 
the form of the pottery, as the ceramic objects from Cliff Palace 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 29 




BASKET HOPPER SIDE AND BOTTOM VIEWS 



10 



FBWKBS] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VEEDE NATIONAL PARK 65 

practically duplicate those from Spruce-tree House, already described, 
and probably are not much unlike those still buried in Long House, 
Balcony House, and the House with the Square Tower. 

As many ceremonial objects, being highly prized, may have been 
removed from Cliff Palace when the place was deserted by its in- 
habitants, the few that remained present scant material from which 
(o add to our knowledge of the ceremonial life of the people. The 
existence of so many kivas would point to many rites, although a 
large number of sacred rooms does not necessarily indicate more 
complex or elaborate rites than a smaller number: multiplicity of 
kivas does not necessarily mean multiplicity of ceremonies, nor few 
kivas a limited ritual. In no pueblo are there more complicated cere- 
mc lies than at Walpi, where there are only five of these sacred 
rooms ; but it must be remembered that many of the religious rites of 
Walpi are performed in kihus, or secular rooms. The same may have 
been true of Cliff Palace. 

The writer's belief is that in historic times, by which is meant since 
the advent of missionaries, altars have become more elaborate and 
rites more complex at Walpi than in prehistoric times, and that 
through the same influence the use of images or idols has also in- 
creased. This increase in the complexity cf rites may be traced to 
the amalgamation of clans or to a substitution of the fraternities of 
priesthoods for simple clan ancestor worship. The elaborate char- 
acter of ceremonial paraphernalia may likewise be due to accultura- 
tion, 0 which increases in complication with the lapse of time. 

Stone Implements 

The stone implements from Cliff Palace consist of axes, mauls, 
paint grinders, pecking stones, metates, balls, flakes, spear and arrow 
points, and various other articles (pis. 20-22). There is great uni- 
formity in these implements, the axes, for instance, being generally 
single edged, although a good specimen of double-edged hatchet is 
in the collection. A fragment of the peculiar stone implement called 
tcamahia b by the Hopi was found. 

While as a rule the hatchets are without handles, one specimen 
(pi. 20) is' exceptional in this particular. The handle of this hatchet 
from Cliff Palace, like that from Spruce-tree House, elsewhere de- 
scribed, is a stick bent in a loop around the stone head. 

a For instance, the complicated reredos of many of the modern Hopi altars is made of 
flat wooden slabs, the manufacture of which would be very difficult for a people ignorant 
of iron. These probably replaced painted stone slabs of simpler character, examples of 
which have been found in ruins and indeed still survive in some of the oldest rites. 

6 This object probably came from near Tok6nabi, the ancient home of the Snake people 
of Walpi, on San Juan river. Fourteen of these tcamahias form part of the Antelope 
altar in the Snake Dance at Walpi. 

-14726°— Bull. 51—11 5 



66 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



POUNDING STONES 

Anyone who will examine the amount of stone-cutting necessary 
to lower the floor of kiva V, for instance, to its present depth, or to 
peck away the projecting rock in some of the other kivas, will 
realize at once that the Cliff Palace people were industrious stone 
workers. A number of the pounding stones (pi. 22, a) with which 
this work was done have been found. These stones are cubical in 
form, or rounded or pointed at one end or both ends, and provided 
with two or more pits on the sides. They were evidently held 
directly in the hand and used without handles. Although generally 
small, they sometimes are of considerable size. The stone of which 
they are made is foreign to the vicinity ; it is hard, as would be abso- 
lutely necessary to be effectual in the use to which they were put. 

GRINDING STONES 

The most common variety of grinding stones is, of course, the 
metate, or mill -stone, used in grinding corn. These implements have 
a variety of forms. They maj^ be flat above and rounded below, 
or flat on both sides, triangular on each face, or simply convex on 
each side. None of them have feet like the Mexican metates. The 
stone with which the grinding was done, or the one held in the hand, 
also varies in shape, size, and evidences of use. a Stones with a depres- 
sion in one face served as mortars. A stone in the form of a pestle, 
flat on the end, served as a paint grinder. Several flat stones with 
smooth surface, showing the effect of grinding, and others with slight 
concavities, undoubtedly served the same purpose. Smooth stones 
showing grinding on one or more faces were evidently the implements 
with which the builders smoothed the walls of the houses after 
the masonry had been laid ; others were used in polishing pottery. 

MISCELLANEOUS STONES 

Many stone balls, large or small, were found. Some of these show 
chipping, others are ground smooth. Certain of these balls were evi- 
dently used in a game popular at Cliff Palace, in which they were rolled 
or dropped into deep pits and grooves. It appears that this game 
was played by occupants of the sacred rooms, as the pits are common 
in the kiva floors. Other stone balls were formerly tied to the end of 
a handle with a thong of hide and used as a weapon. 

a At several places on the surfaces of projecting rocks forming the foundations of build- 
ings may be noticed grooves where metates were sharpened. One or more of these occur 
at the entrance to the " street " in front of room 51. The foundation of a wall In one 
room was built directly upon one of these grooves, part of the groove being in sight, the 
rest covered with masonry. Near room 92 there are many of these grooves as well as 
small pits. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 30 





SANDALS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 31 




SANDALS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 32 




SANDALS 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



67 



A half oval stone, smooth and flat at one pole, is supposed to have 
been an idol, possibly the earth goddess, who is repeatedly represented 
by the Hopi in a similar way. It was left near where it was found at 
the northwest corner of kiva H. Our masons used rectangular slabs 
of soft stone, which were doubtless door-closes, as mortar boards. 
They were held in place in the door opening by jambs made of 
mortar laid on sticks, and by a horizontal rod which passed between 
two osier eyelets set in the uprights of the door-frame and projecting 
from it. These stone doors were sometimes held in place by a groove 
cut in the threshold or by a ledge of adobe. 

Two thin, flat, circular stone disks (pi. 22, c), with smooth surfaces 
and square edges, accompanied the calcined human bones in the 
inclosure at the northern end of the large refuse heap. It is probable 
that some of these disks were used as covers for mortuary vases. 
Irregularly shaped flat stones with pits and incised figures pecked 
in their surface were used in a game, and a slab covered with incised 
figures but without the pits (pi. 23, c) probably served a similar 
purpose. 

Several large stones, which the builders of Cliff Palace had begun 
to dress and had later rejected, show the method adopted by them in 
cutting stones the required size. When stones were found to be too 
large to be laid, or had projections that interfered with the required 
shape, a groove was pecked where the fracture was desired and the 
stone broken along the groove. 

Pottery 

No ruin in the Mesa Yerde National Park has yielded more 
specimens of pottery than Cliff Palace, many pieces of which are 
preserved in various museums in Colorado and elsewhere. The col- 
lection gathered by the writer was small compared with some of these, 
and although only a few whole pieces were found, by restoration from 
fragments a fair number of specimens, ample perhaps for generaliza- 
tion, were procured. In the following mention of the pottery ob- 
tained from the ruin a very comprehensive idea of the perfection in 
the ceramic art attained in Cliff Palace can hardly be hoped. 

Southwestern pottery may be divided into two types, so far as 
superficial appearance goes: (1) coiled, or indented undecorated 
ware; (2) smooth polished ware. Of the latter there are two sub- 
types: (a) pottery with a surface slip, generally white, on which 
designs are painted, and (h) decorated pottery without a superficial 
slip, and generally reddish in color. Cliff Palace pottery, when 
decorated, belongs to the last two divisions, but some of the best 
made specimens belong to the coiled or indented type. Although 
there are several fragments of red pottery ornamented with designs 



68 



BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 51 



painted in black, and one or two specimens in which the basal color 
is orange, the majority of the specimens belong to the so-called black- 
and-white ware, which may therefore be called a type of this region. 

The whole pieces of pottery collected were chiefly mortuary ves- 
sels, and probably contained food offerings, indicating, like the sipa- 
pus in the kivas, that the cliff-dwellers had a distinct conception of a 
future life. In addition to the limited number of pieces of unbroken 
pottery, many of the fragments were decorated with novel patterns. 
Fragments of corrugated and indented ware are by far the most 
numerous, but although many of these were obtained, not a whole 
piece was found, with the exception of a single specimen plastered in 
a fire-hole and three others similarly fixed in the banquettes of kivas. 
These were left as they were found. 

The same forms of pottery, as dippers, ladles, vases, canteens, jars, 
and similar objects, occur at Cliff Palace as at Spruce-tree House 
(pi. 23-27). All varieties were repeatedly found, some with old 
cracks that had been mended, and one is still tied with the yucca 
cord with which it had been repaired. It is evident from the fre- 
quency with which the Cliff Palace people mended their old pot- 
tery that they prized the old vessels and were very careful to preserve 
them, being loth to abandon even a cracked jar (pi. 23, d). None of 
the Cliff Palace pottery is glazed. a Some specimens of smooth pot- 
tery are coarse in texture and without decoration ; others have elabo- 
rate geometrical figures; but animate objects are confined almost en- 
tirely to a few pictures of birds or other animals and rudely drawn 
human figures. The pictography of the pottery affords scant data 
bearing on the interpretation of the ancient symbolism of the inhabi- 
tants, as compared with that of Sikyatki, for example, in the Hopi 
country. 

Food bowls. — In form the food bowls 6 from Cliff Palace (pis. 23- 
25) are the same as those from other prehistoric sites of the South- 
west, but as a rule the Cliff Palace bowls are smaller than those of 
Sikyatki and the ruins on the Little Colorado. They have, as a rule, 
a thicker lip, which is square across instead of tapering to a thin edge 
or flaring, as is sometimes the case elsewhere. The surface, inside and 
out, is commonly very smooth, even glossy. The pottery was built 
up by coiling the clay, and the colors were made permanent by the 
firing. 

a The first description of " glazed " pottery in the Pueblo region is given by Castaneda 
(1540), who says: "Throughout this province [Tiguex] are found -glazed pottery and 
vessels truly remarkable both in shape and execution." This has sometimes been inter- 
preted to mean the glossy but 'unglazed pottery of Santa Clara. Glazed pottery was 
found by the writer in 1896 in ruins on the Little Colorado. It appears to be intrusive 
in the Arizona ruins. 

6 Food bowls with handles, so common to the ruins of northern Arizona, were not 
found at Cliff Palace. 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 69 

The basis of the study of symbolism was of course the pottery deco- 
ration. As a rule the center of the inside of the food bowls is plain, 
but several have this portion ornamented with squares, triangles, and 
other fioures. The outside of several bowls from Cliff Palace and 
Spruce-tree House is decorated, notwithstanding Nordenskiold speaks 
of exterior decoration as rare in his collections from the Mesa Verde. 
The geometric ornaments consist of rectangular figures. a 

Mugs. — Some authors have questioned whether the prehistoric peo- 
ple of the Southwest were familiar with this form of pottery. Th<? 
collections from Cliff Palace (pi. 24-26) and Spruce-tree House set 
at rest any reasonable doubt on this point. There are, however, 
peculiarities in the form of mugs from Mesa Verde. The diameter 
of the base is generally larger, tapering gently toward the mouth, and 
one end of the handle is rarely affixed to the rim. The inside of the 
mug is not usually decorated, but the exterior bears geometrical de- 
signs in which terraces, triangles, and parallel lines predominate. 
Curved lines are rare, and spirals are absent. Mugs with two handles 
are unrepresented. There are no ladles in the collection, but several 
broken handles of ladles were found in the refuse. One of these is 
decorated with a series of parallel, longitudinal, and transverse lines, 
a design as widely spread as Pueblo pottery, extending across the 
boundary into Mexico. 

Globular Vessels. — The globular form of pottery was used for 
carrying water and seems to have been common at Cliff Palace. 
One of these vessels (pi. 25, b) has a small neck, and attached to it 
are two eyelets for insertion of the thong by which it was carried. 
Some of the globular vessels (pi. 25, a) have the neck small, the 
orifice wide, and the lip perforated with holes for strings. Double- 
lipped globular vessels, having a groove like that of a teapot, have 
been found in Cliff Palace as well as in other ruins of Mesa Verde and 
Montezuma canyon. The rims of these are generally perforated, as 
if for the insertion of thongs to facilitate carrying. The bottoms of 
these vessels are rarely concave. They are sometimes decorated on 
the outside, but never on the interior. 

Vases. — Small vases with contracted neck and lip slightly curved, 
and larger vases with the same characters, occur sparingly. These 
(pis. 26, 27, b) are decorated on the exterior in geometrical designs; 
the interior is plain. The bases are rounded, sometimes flat, and in 
rare instances concave. 

Disks. — Among pottery objects should be mentioned certain disks, 
some large, others small, some perforated in the middle, others im- 
perforate. Several are decorated. These disks served as covers for 
bowls, and, similar disks were employed as counters in games or as 



° No curved lines are present in the many examples of decoration on the outside of food 
bowls from Sikyatki. 



70 



BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



spindle whorls. None of the clay disks from Cliff Palace has a 
central knob or handle like those from Spruce-tree House. 

RELATIONS AS DETERMINED BY POTTERY 

In the report on Spruce-tree House, using pottery as a basis, the 
prehistoric culture of the Southwest, including the Gila-Salt area, 
which can not strictly be designated Pueblo, has been provisionally 
divided into several subcultural areas. Among these are the Hopi, a 
specialized modification of the Little Colorado, the Little Colorado 
proper, the San Juan, and the Gila-Salt areas. 

Cliff Palace pottery symbols are not closely related to those on 
old Hopi ware, as typified by the collections from Sikyatki. a Neither 
Cliff Palace nor Spruce-tree House pottery is closely allied to that of 
the Little Colorado, as exemplified by Homolobi ware, but botli 
have a closer likeness to that from Wukoki, a settlement ascribed 
to the Snake clans, situated near Black Falls, not far from Flag- 
staff, Arizona. As a rule the symbolism on pottery from the Little 
Colorado, which includes that of its upper tributaries, as the Zuhi, 
Puerco, Leroux, and Cottonwood washes, is a mixture of all types. 
This river valley has exerted a distributing influence in Pueblo 
migrations, and in its ruins are found symbols characteristic of 
many clans, some of which, following up the tributaries of the Salt 
and the Gila, have brought Casas Grandes decorative elements ; others, 
with sources in the northeast, have contributed designs from an 
opposite direction. The predominating directions of ceramic culture 
migration in this valley have been from south to north and from 
Avest to east. 6 

The relation of Cliff Palace pottery designs to the symbolism or 
decorative motives characteristic of the Gila valley ruins is remote. 
Several geometrical patterns are common to all areas of the South- 
west, but specialized features characterize each of these areas. The 
•pottery from Cliff Palace finds its nearest relation throughout the 
upper San Juan region ; the most distant to that of ruins in northern 
Arizona near Colorado Grande. 0 

a Sikyatki ware is more closely related to that of the ancient Jemez and Pajarito sub- 
area than to that made by the Snake clans when they lived at Tokonabi, their old home, 
or at Black Falls shortly before they arrived at Walpi. Careful study of ancient Walpi 
pottery made by the Bear clan before the arrival of the Snake clans shows great simi- 
larity to Sikyatki pottery, and the same holds regarding the ware from old Shongopovi. 

6 In the ruins found on the banks of the Little Colorado at Black Falls, the predominat- 
ing influence, as shown by pottery symbols, has been from the north. It is known from 
legends that Wuk6ki was settled by clans from the north, the close likeness to the symbols 
of the San Juan valley supporting traditions still current at Walpi. 

<A thorough comparative study of Pueblo pottery symbolism is much restricted on 
account of lack of material from all ceramic culture areas of the Southwest. It is like- 
wise made difficult by a mixture of types produced by the migration of clans from one area 
to another.- The subject is capable of scientific treatment, but at present is most diffi- 
cult of analysis. 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 71 



SYMBOLS ON POTTERY 

The symbols on the Cliff Palace pottery are reducible to rectangular 
geometrical figures; life forms, with the rare exceptions noted above, 
are not represented, and the exceptional examples are crude. Con- 
trast this condition with the pottery from Sikyatki, where three- 
fourths of the decorations are life designs, as figures of men or ani- 
mals, many of which are highly symbolic. The " sky band " with 
hanging bird design, peculiar to old Hopi ware, was unknown to 
Cliff Palace potters. Encircling lines are unbroken, no specimen be- 
ing found with the break so common to the pottery from the Hopi, 
Little Colorado, Gila, and Jemez subareas. The designs on food 
bowls are often accompanied with marginal dots. No example of the 
conventionalized " breath-feather " so common in Sikyatki pottery 
decoration occurs. Spattering with color was not practiced. 

An analysis of the pottery decorations shows that the dominant 
forms may be reduced to a few types, of which the terrace, the spiral, 
the triangle, and the cross in its various forms are the most common. 

Various forms and sizes of triangles, singly or in combination, con- 
stitute one of the most constant devices used by the cliff-dwellers of 
the Mesa Yerde in the decoration of their pottery. It is common to 
find two series of triangles arranged on parallel lines. When the 
component triangles are right-angled they sometimes alternate with 
each other, forming a zigzag which may be sinistral or dextral. This 
design may be called an alternate right-angular figure. 

If instead of two parallel series of right-angle triangles there are 
isosceles triangles, they may be known as alternate isosceles triangles. 
These triangles, when opposite, form a series of hour-glass figures or 
squares. This form is commonly accompanied by a row of dots, 
affixed to top and base, known as the dotted square or hour-glass , 
figure. Hour-glass designs are commonly represented upright, but 
the angles of the triangles may be so placed that the series is hori- 
zontal, forming a continuous chain. Often the bases of these serially 
arrayed hour-glass figures are separated by rows of dots or by blank 
spaces. 

A row of triangles, each so placed that the angles touch the mid- 
dles of the sides of others in the same series, form an arc called linear 
triangles. The St. Andrews cross, which occurs sparingly on Mesa 
Verde pottery, is formed by joining the vertical angles of four isos- 
celes triangles. 

The cross and the various forms of the familiar swastika also occur 
on Cliff Palace pottery. The star symbol, made up of four squares 
so arranged as to leave a space in the middle, is yet to be found in 
Mesa Verde. Parallel curved lines, crooked at the end or combined 
with triangles and squares, occur commonly in the pottery decoration 



72 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



of Cliff Palace. S-shaped figures are known. Rectangles or tri- 
angles with dots, or even a line of dots alone, are not rare in the deco- 
ration. No designs representing leaves or flowers occur on pottery 
from Cliff Palace, nor has the spider-web pattern been found. The 
most common geometrical decorations are the stepped or terraced 
figures, generally called rain-clouds. 

POTTERY RESTS 

Among the objects found in the refuse heaps of Cliff Palace are 
rings, about 6 inches in diameter, woven of corn husks or cedar bark 
bound together with fiber of yucca or other plants. These rings (pi. 
28) were evidently used as supports for earthenware vases, the bases 
of which are generally rounded, so that otherwise they would not 
stand upright. Similar rings may have been used by the women in 
carrying jars of water on their heads, a as among the Zuni of to-day. 
Some of these rings may have been used in what is called the 
" ring and dart " game, which is often ceremonial in nature. The best 
made of all these objects, found by Mr. Fuller on his visit to a 
neighboring canyon, is shown in the accompanying illustration 
(pi. 28, b). The specimen is made of tightly woven corn husks, 
around which the fiber is gathered so as to form an equatorial ridge 
rarely present in these objects. 

Basketry 

A few instructive specimens of basketry or wicker ware were 
exhumed at Cliff Palace. One of the most interesting of these is 
the unfinished plaque shown in the accompanying figure 2. 

One specimen of basketry (pi. 29) has the form of a hopper; its 
whole central part was purposely omitted, but the basket is finished 
on the inner and outer margins. It recalls a basket used by the Ute 
and other Shoshonean Indians, but it is different in form from any 
figured in Nordenskiold's work, and, so far as the author is acquainted 
with other specimens of basketry from Mesa Verde ruins, is unique. 
It is supposed that when used this hopper was placed on a flat or 
rounded stone and that corn or other seeds to be pounded were placed 
in it, the stone thus forming the surface upon which the seeds were 
treated, and the sides of the basket serving to retain the meal. 

Sandals 

The sandals found at Cliff Palace (pis. 30-32) are practically the 
same in form, material, and weave as those recorded from Spruce- 
tree House. The shape of these, however, is particularly instruc- 



a The Hopi use large clay canteens for this purpose, no vessels resembling which, 
whole or in fragments, have been found at Cliff Palace. 



FBWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



73 



live, as it appears to shed light on the meaning of certain flat stones, 
rare in cliff-dwellings, called " sandal lasts." These stones, one of 
which is figured in the report on Spruce-tree House, are rectangular, 
flat, thin, smooth, with rounded corners, and sometimes have a notch 
in the rim at one end. The exceptionally formed sandal from Cliff 
Palace (pi. 32) is similar in shape and has a notch identical with 
that of the problematical stone objects, supporting the theory that 
the latter were used as sandal lasts, as interpreted by several authors. 

The sandals are ordinarily made of plaited yucca leaves, their up- 
per side being sometimes covered with corn leaves for protection of 



Fig. 2. — Coil of basket plaque. 

the feet. The thongs that passed between the toes are made either of 
yucca or other vegetable fiber, or of hide. 

Wooden Objects 

There are several objects made of wood in the collection from Cliff 
Palace, some of the least problematical of which are long, pointed 
rods (fig. 3) with which the ancients probably made the holes in 
which they planted corn, in much the same way as the Hopi plant 
at the present day. These implements are commonly pointed at the 
end, but one or two are broadened and flattened. Xo example of the 
spatular variety of dibble found by others, and none showing the 
point of attachment of a flat stone blade, occurs in the collection. 
One or two short broken sticks, having a knob cut on the unbroken 
end, are interpreted as handles of weapons — a use that is not defi- 
nitely proven. There are several sticks that evidently were used 
for barring windows or for holding stone door-closes in place. 

Among problematical wooden objects may be mentioned billets (pi. 
33) , flattened on one side and rounded at each end. Two of these were 
found, with calcined human bones, in the inclosure used for crema- 



74 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



tion of the dead, situated at the northern end of the large refuse 
heap. These, like the bowls with which they were associated, were 
coated with a white salt-like deposit. None of the many wooden 
objects figured by Nordenskiold are exactly the same as those above 
mentioned, although the one shown in his plate xliii, figure 17, 
is very close in form and size. 

Several bent twigs or loops of flexible wood from the refuse heaps 
were found; these are supposed to have been inserted in the masonry, 
one on each side of door and window openings, to hold in place the 
stick which served as a bolt for fastening the door or window 
stone in position. 

Bent sticks, of dumb-bell shape, having a knob at each* end (pi. 
33, b) , are believed to have been used in games. A similar object from 
the Mancos region is figured by Mr. Stewart Culin in his account of 
the games of the cliff-dwellers. a The ancient people of the semi- 
deserts of Atacama, in South America, employed a similar but larger 




Fig. 3. — Planting sticks. 

;stick, to which cords were attached for strapping bundles on their 
beasts of burden. 

Drills 



A small pointed stone attached with fiber to the end of a stick, 
similar to those found by Nordenskiold in ruin 9 and at Long House, 
was found. 

The Cliff Palace people kindled fire by means of the fire-drill and 
fire-stick (hearth), a specimen of which, similar to one collected at 
Spruce-tree House, is contained in the collection. Both of these 
fire-making implements were broken when found, apparently thrown 
away on that account either by the original people or by subsequent 
visitors. 

Bone Implements 

Many bone implements (pi. 34, 35) were found during the excava- 
tion of Cliff Palace. They are of the bones of birds and small mam- 
mals, or, now and then, of those of antelope or bear, the latter fur- 



a Twenty- fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 34 




BONE IMPLEMENTS 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



75 



nishing the best material for large scrapers. These implements were 
evidently sharpened by rubbing on the stones of walls or on the face 
of the cliff, as grooves, apparently made in this way, are there visible 
in several places. Scratches made in shaping or sharpening bones, 
repeatedly found on the masonry of Cliff Palace, are not peculiar, 
resembling those referred to in the report on Spruce-tree House. A 
small tube with a hole midway of its length doubtless served as a 
whistle, similar instruments being still often used in Hopi ceremonies 
to imitate the calls of birds. 

Sections of bones were found tied in pairs, and while it is not clear 
that these were threaded on a cord and worn as necklaces or armlets, 
as Nordenskiold suggests, they may have been tied side by side, 
forming a kind of breastplate not unlike that used by the Plains 
tribes. In a room of Spruce-tree House, according to Nordenskiold, 
eight similar pieces of bone Avere found strung on a fine thong of 
hide. 

Among other bone objects there is one, of unknown use, about 
an inch long and one- fourth of an inch in diameter, nearly cylin- 
drical in shape. A bone with a hole in one end, similar to those 
figured by Nordenskiold, forms part of the collection. 

Turquoise Ear Pendants and other Objects 

The single specimen of turquoise found at Cliff Palace was prob- 
ably an ear pendant, and a black jet bead was apparently used for the 
same purpose. With the polished cylinder of hematite found one 
can still paint the face or body a reddish color, as the Hopi do with 
a similar object. From the sipapu of kiva D there was taken a 
:small deerskin bag, tied with yucca fiber and containing a material 
resembling iron pyrites, evidently an offering of some kind to the 
gods of the underworld. 

A button made of lignite, and beads of the same material, were 
found in the refuse heap in front of the ruin after a heavy rain. The 
former is broken, but it resembles that found at Spruce-tree House, 
although it is not so finely made, and also one from Homolobi, a ruin 
on the Little Colorado, near Tvmslow, Arizona. 

Seeds 

The cobs and seeds of corn, squash and pumpkin seeds, beans, and 
fragments of gourds give some idea of the vegetable products known 
to the Cliff Palace people. Corn furnished the most important food 
of the people, and its dried leaves, stalks, and tassels were abundant in 
all parts of their refuse heaps. Naturally, in a cave where many 
small rodents have lived for years, it is rare to find seed corn above 
ground that has not been appropriated by these animals, and in the 



76 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



dry, alkaline bone-phosphate dust edible corn is not very common,, 

although now and then occurs a 
cob with attached seeds. The corn 
of Cliff Palace, already figured by 
Nordenskiold, resembles that still 
cultivated by some of the Hopi. 

Textiles 

The Cliff Palace people manu- 
factured fairly good cloth, the com- 
ponent cords or strings being of 
two or three strands and well 
twisted. So finely made and dura- 
ble are some of these cords that 
they might be mistaken for white 
men's work; some of them, how- 
ever, are very coarse, and are tied 
in hanks. Among varieties of cords 
may be mentioned those wound 
with feathers, from which textiles,, 
ordinarily called " feather cloth," 
was made. Yucca and cotton were 
employed in the manufacture of 
almost all kinds of fabrics. A few 
fragments of netting were found. 

The finest cloth was manufac- 
tured from cotton, a good specimen 
of which, showing a pattern woven 
in different colors, is contained in. 
the collection. 

Several woven belts, and also a 
head-band similar to that figured 
in the report on Spruce-tree House,, 
were uncovered by the excavations. 

The largest fragment of cloth 
was taken out of the crematory, or 
inclosure containing the calcined 
human bones, at the northern end 
of the larger refuse heap. It ap- 
pears to have been a portion of a 
bag, or possibly of a head cover- 

Fig. 4. — Woven forehead band. „ . ., . 

mg, but it is so rragmentary that 
its true use is unknown. The pattern is woven in darker colored 




BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 51 PLATE 35 




BONE IMPLEMENTS 



FEWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PA R K 



77 



threads, with a selvage at two ends. The material out of which 
it was made has not been definitely determined, but it closely 
resembles that of the specimen figured by Norclenskiold (plate l) 
from Mug House. Our excavations were rewarded with a fine woven 
head-band with loops at the ends (fig. 4), similar to that described 
and figured in the report on Spruce-tree House. Several small frag- 
ments of cloth were recovered from the refuse heap, but none of them 
was large enough to indicate the form of the garment to which they 
originally belonged. - 

In the group of fabrics may be included nets and cloth with 
feathers wound around warp and woof, similar to those figured from 
Spruce-tree House. 

There were several specimens of yucca strings, tied in loops, gen- 
erally six in number, which presumably were devoted to the same 
purpose as by the present Hopi, who attach to the string six ears of 
corn, representing the cardinal points on the six-directions altar, and 
hang them on the walls of a priest's house. If the cliff-dwellers used 
this string for a similar purpose, it would appear that they, like the 
Hopi, recognized six cardinal points — north, west, south, east, above, 
and below — and worshiped gods of these directions, to which they- 
erected altars. 0 

HUMAN BURIALS 

As lias been seen, there were two methods of disposing of the 
dead — by inhumation and by cremation. • The former may have been 
either house burial or burial in the refuse heaps in the rear of the 
buildings. With both forms of disposing of the dead mortuary food 
offerings were found. Evidences of prehistoric burials and cremation 
were found both on the mesa above Cliff Palace and in the ruin. 6 

The practice of cremation among the cliff-dwellers has long been 
known. Norclenskiold writes (p. 49) : 

That cremation, however, was sometimes practiced by the Cliff Dwellers 
seems probable from the fact that Richard Wetherill observed in the same ruin, 
■when the above-mentioned burial chamber was found, bodies which had appar- 
ently been burnt, together with the pottery belonging to the dead. 

The evidences of cremation found in the inclosure at the northern 
end of the refuse space of Cliff Palace is conclusive. The calcined 
bones uncovered here were also accompanied with mortuary pottery, 
cloth, and wooden objects. 

The flexed position of the bodies of the dead occurs constantly in 
the earth burials, which may be explained by the almost universal 

n For a Hopi six-directions altar, see Journal of American Ethnology and Archwology, 
Vol. II, 1892. 

6 The house burials appear to have been mainly those of priests or other important 
personages. 



78 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



belief among primitive people that when the body is returned to 
" mother earth " it should be placed in the posture it normally had 
before birth. In house burials at Spruce-tree House the bodies were 
sometimes extended at full length, which may be interpreted to mean 
that the dead were not returned to the earth mother. There was no 
uniformity of posture in the burials at Cliff Palace. 

The work at Cliff Palace was undertaken at too late a day to 
recover any mummified human remains, all having been previously 
removed. NordenskiolcFs figures and descriptions of desiccated 
human bodies from other Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings would apply ? 
in a measure, to those from Cliff Palace. 

CONCLUSIONS 

While the work of excavation and repair of Cliff Palace described 
in the preceding pages adds nothing distinctly new to existing knowl- 
edge of cliff-dweller culture, it renders a more comprehensive idea 
of the conditions of life in one of the largest of these interesting 
ancient settlements in our Southwest. Of all the questions that pre- 
sent themselves after a work of this kind, perhaps the most impor- 
tant, from a scientific point of view, is, What relation exists between 
the culture of Cliff Palace and that of the neighboring pueblos? 
Directly across the canyon, in full view of Cliff Palace, there is a 
typical pueblo ruin, almost identical in character with many others 
scattered throughout the Southwest, some of which are known to 
have been inhabited in historic times by ancestors of Pueblo peoples 
still living. The contribution here made to the knowledge of cliff- 
dwelling culture will, it is hoped, shed light on the question, In 
what way are the cliff-dwellers and the Pueblos related ? 

The relationship in culture of the former people of Cliff Palace 
to those of the large pueblo ruin on the mesa across the canyon is 
most instructive. How were the inhabitants of these two settlements 
related; and were the two sites inhabited simultaneously, or is the 
pueblo ruin older than Cliff Palace? So far as the culture of the 
inhabitants of the two is known (and knowledge of the pueblo is 
scant), the two settlements were synchronously inhabited, but noth- 
ing in them gives indication of the period of their occupancy. These 
questions can be settled only by the excavation of this pueblo or of 
some similar ruin on the plateau. 0 Nordenskiold, with the data 

a A true comparison of the mesa habitation and the cliff-dwelling can be made only by 
renewed work on the former, which is now little more than a huge pile of fallen walls. 
Present indications show a greater antiquity of the mesa ruin, the site of which af- 
forded more adequate protection. On this supposition the mesa ruins would be con- 
sidered older than the cliff ruins, and those of the valley the most ancient. If the ruins 
in Montezuma valley are the oldest, we can not suppose that the culture originated in the 
cliffs and spread to the valley. The circular subterranean kiva bears indication of having 
originated in valleys rather than in caverns. Nordenskiold does not mention the large 
ruin on the bluff west of Cliff Palace. 



fewkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



79 



possessed by him, did not hesitate to express decided views on this 
point : 

We are forced to conclude that they [cliff-houses] were abandoned later 
than the villages on the mesa. Some features, for example, the superposition 
of walls constructed with the greatest proficiency on others built in a more 
primitive fashion (see plate xin) indicate that the cliff-dwellings have been 
inhabited at two different periods. They were first abandoned, and had partly 
fallen into ruin, but were subsequently repeopled, new walls being now erected 
on the ruins of the old. The best explanation hereof seems to be the following : 
On the plateaux and in the valleys the Pueblo tribes attained their widest 
distribution and their highest development. The numerous villages at no 
great distance from each other were strong enough to defy their hostile neigh- 
bors. But afterwards, from causes difficult of elucidation, a period of decay 
set in, the number and population of the villages gradually decreased, and the 
inhabitants were again compelled to take refuge in the remote fastnesses. Here 
the people of the Mesa Verde finally succumbed to their enemies. The memory 
of their last struggle is preserved by the numerous human bones found in 
many places, strewn among the ruined cliff-dwellings. These human remains 
occur in situations where it is impossible to assume that they have been 
interred. 

Closely connected with the relative age and the identity of the 
Mesa Verde cliff-house and pueblo culture are the age and relation- 
ship of different cliff-houses of the same region, for example, Cliff 
Palace and Spruce-tree House. The relative number of kivas may 
shed light on this point. 

The relative proportion of the number of kivas to secular houses 
varies in Cliff Palace and Spruce-tree House. In the former there 
are about 7 secular rooms to every kiva ; in the latter about 15. Long 
House has a still more marked difference, there being here only a few 
secular houses and a maximum number of kivas. Whether this vari- 
ation has any meaning it is impossible to say definitely ; theoretically, 
as compared with modern pueblos, the proportionately larger number 
of kivas points to a sociological condition in Cliff Palace characteristic 
of more primitive times. The larger the number of kivas relatively 
to secular rooms the older the ruin. Long House would be regarded 
as older than Cliff Palace, and Cliff Palace older than Spruce-tree 
House, Balcony House being the most modern and the last of the four 
to be deserted. A cliff-dwelling with a kiva but without secular 
rooms is rare, and one with secular rooms but without kivas is like- 
wise unusual. Where the latter exists it is so situated as to indicate 
that it was subordinated to neighboring large cliff-dwellings. 

The relative number of circular kivas in ruins and in modern 
inhabited pueblos where the circular form of room is found is larger 
in the ruins than in the inhabited pueblos. The proportionate num- 
ber of circular rooms to secular rooms in cliff-dwellings of the Mesa 
Verde is also larger than in pueblo ruins like those of the Chaco. 
Apparently the older the pueblo the greater the relative number of 



80 



BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



kivas. If, as is suspected, a larger number of kivas indicates rela- 
tively greater age, the explanation may be sought in the amalgama- 
tion of clans and the development of religious fraternities. Hypo- 
thetically, in early days each clan had its own men's room, or kiva, 
but when clans were united by marriage and secret ceremonies were 
no longer limited to individual clans, the participants belonging to 
several clans, a religious fraternity was developed and several clan 
kivas consolidated or were enlarged into fraternity kivas such as we 
find among the Hopi and other Pueblos. 

From a study of kivas the conclusion is that Spruce-tree House is 
more modern than Cliff Palace. This conclusion is borne out also by 
the fact that the water supply at Spruce-tree House is more abundant 
than that at Cliff Palace. 

In one or two architectural features Cliff Palace is unique, although 
sharing with other cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde National Park many 
minor characters. The first difference between Cliff Palace and 
Spruce-tree House, outside of the disparity in their size and the rela- 
tively large proportion of secular to ceremonial rooms in the latter, is 
the existence in the former of terraces and retaining walls. Spruce- 
tree House is built on one level, above which rise the secular houses 
while below are the ceremonial rooms or kivas. The contrast of 
this simple condition with that of Cliff Palace, with its three ter- 
races and the complicated front wall at several levels thereby necessi- 
tated, is apparent. 

There are several other ruins in the Mesa Verde Park in whicn tne 
configuration of the rear of the cave led to the construction of the 
cliff-house in terrace form. This is well exemplified in the Spring 
House, where buildings on an upper level occupy much the same 
relation to those below as the ledge houses to the main ruin, and in 
ruins in the Canyon de Chelly, like those in Mummy Cave, where 
this relation of the buildings on the ledge to those on top of the talus 
is even more pronounced. Architectural features in cliff-houses arc 
due to the geological structure of the cave in which they are situated 
rather than to cultural differences. 

Nothing was found to indicate that Cliff Palace was inhabited 
during the historic period. The inhabitants were not acquainted with 
metals brought by white men to the Southwest. The absence of glass 
and of glazed pottery is also significant. No sheep, horses, or other 
beasts of burden paid them tribute. In fact, there is no evidence 
that they had ever heard of white men. These ruins belong to the 
stone age in America and show no evidence of white man's culture. 

Except that it is prehistoric, the period at which Cliff Palace was 
inhabited is therefore largely a matter for archeological investigation 
to determine, and thus far no decisive evidence bearing on that point 
has been produced. It has been held that Cliff Palace is five hundred 



fbwkes] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 81 

years old, and some writers have added five centuries to this guess ; 
but the nature of the evidence on which this extreme antiquity is 
ascribed to the ruin is not warranted by the evidence available. 

No additional information was obtained bearing on current theories 
of the causes that led the ancient occupants of the Mesa Verde cliff- 
dwellings to adopt this inhospitable and inconvenient habitat. It 
is probable that one and the same cause led to the abandonment of 
Spruce-tree House, Cliff Palace, and other Mesa Verde cliff -houses. 
The inhabitants of these buildings struggled to gain a livelihood 
against their unfavorable environment until a too-exacting nature 
finally overcame them. There are no indications that the abandon- 
ment of Cliff Palace was cataclysmic in nature : it seems to have been 
a gradual desertion by one clan after another. One of the primary 
reasons was change of climate, which caused the water supply to 
diminish and the crops to fail; but long before its final desertion 
many clans abandoned the place, and drifting from point to point 
sought home-sites where water was more abundant. All available 
data lend weight to a belief that the cliff-houses of Mesa Verde were 
not abandoned simultaneously, but were deserted one by one. Pos- 
sibly the inhabitants retired to the river valleys, where water was 
constant, and later gave up life on the mesa. But even then the cul- 
ture was not allowed to continue unmodified by outside influences. 
Where the descendants of Cliff Palace now dwell, or whether they 
are now extinct, can be determined only by additional research. 

Evidence is rapidly accumulating in support of the theory that 
the " cliff-dweller culture " of our Southwest was preceded by a 
" pit-house culture,'' the most prominent feature of which is the 
small circular or rectangular rooms, artificially excavated laterally 
in cliffs or vertical in the ground, which served this ancient people 
either as dwellings or for storage. The side walls of these rooms 
were supported in some instances by upright logs, and commonly 
clay was plastered directly on the walls of the excavations. The 
architectural survival of subterranean rooms exists among the cliff- 
dwellings in circular underground kivas, the variations of which are 
so well illustrated in Cliff Palace. 

In connection with these " pit rooms," which are never large, may 
be mentioned the large subterranean artificial excavations found scat- 
tered over the Pueblo area of the Southwest. Such occur in the Gila 
valley, and have been reported from the San Juan drainage; they 
have been identified as reservoirs and also as kivas. Some of these 
subterranean rooms are rightly identified as kivas, but others have 
architectural features that render this interpretation improbable. 
What their function was and how they are connected with the people 

44726°— Bull. 51—11 6 



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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 51 



who built the smaller subterranean rooms of the Southwest can be 
determined only by excavations and a study of the features of both 
types. 

The most important step that remains to be taken in the scientific 
study of the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Park is to discover the 
relation of the culture of Cliff Palace to that of the neighboring 
pueblo. This will necessitate the scientific excavation and repair of 
the latter ruin and a comparison of its major and minor antiquities 
with those of Cliff Palace. The age of cliff -dwellings in different 
parts of the Southwest undoubtedly varies. Certain Pueblo ruins 
are older than some cliff-dwellings, and there are cliff-houses more 
ancient than Pueblo ruins. Continued research in the Mesa Verde 
region will doubtless shed light on the relative age of Cliff Palace 
and the great pueblo ruin opposite it. 



o 



